
Kavanaugh's defense of NSA phone surveillance looms as confirmation question - notscj
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/brett-kavanaughs-defense-of-nsa-phone-surveillance-looms-as-confirmation-question
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monetus
Also, his words on net neutrality:

“In short, although the briefs and commentary about the net neutrality issue
are voluminous, the legal analysis is straightforward: If the Supreme Court’s
major rules doctrine means what it says, then the net neutrality rule is
unlawful because Congress has not clearly authorized the FCC to issue this
major rule. And if the Supreme Court’s Turner Broadcasting decisions mean what
they say, then the net neutrality rule is unlawful because the rule
impermissibly infringes on the Internet service providers’ editorial
discretion. To state the obvious, the Supreme Court could always refine or
reconsider the major rules doctrine or its decisions in the Turner
Broadcasting cases. But as a lower court, we do not possess that power. Our
job is to apply Supreme Court precedent as it stands. For those two
alternative and independent reasons, the FCC’s net neutrality regulation is
unlawful and must be vacated.”

He certainly doesn't sound like an activist judge, so Susan Collins will
likely approve of him. I am very pessimistic about the future.

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masonic
Would you prefer a system where law can be overruled by the stroke of an
unelected administrator's pen? All he this says is that if government wants a
power, it has to follow a _legal_ process to obtain it.

We _had_ net neutrality under GWB. We _lost_ it under Obama by a botched
change in administration governance without corresponding legislation.

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monetus
No, of course I wouldn't. I wasn't lamenting net neutrality, I was lamenting
that I think he will be confirmed by means of those measured statements. The
due process isn't upsetting, the fact the court will likely be regressive is.

With you having made me think about it, I'm pretty sure the supreme court
judges are unelected administrators. Our Congress isn't representative, so I
don't think their confirmation process is either.

