Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Brett Kavanaugh's defense of NSA phone surveillance looms as confirmation question
Washington Examiner ^ | 07/09/2018 | Steven Nelson

Posted on 07/09/2018 7:18:35 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, forcefully defended the National Security Agency’s dragnet collection of domestic call records, alarming privacy advocates who view the collection as unconstitutional.

It’s not yet clear if Kavanaugh’s November 2015 concurrence while serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will factor prominently in his confirmation proceedings. But before he was nominated, anti-surveillance progressive and conservative advocates expressed concern.

“I believe Judge Kavanaugh is an excellent judge, though certainly not a perfect one,” Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, told the Washington Examiner last week. "His Fourth Amendment perspective is troubling."

“As someone who sued the NSA over their metadata gathering as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, he and I disagree on that point, and I think a lot of liberty-minded folks are going to have that as a major concern,” said Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general.

Privacy activists said Kavanaugh's two-page opinion was remarkable both for its legal analysis and the fact he didn’t need to write it. He attached the concurrence to a legal order turning down an appeal challenging the NSA’s then-discontinued call record dragnet.

The other appeals court judges offered no reason for denying the appeal, but Kavanaugh voluntarily wrote that he believed the collection, which Congress ended as a matter of policy earlier that year, was constitutional.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: bknominated; cuccinelli; deepstate; kavanaugh; nsa; scotus; surveillance; trumpscotus
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 next last
To: Luke21

Evil lurks large over us. It is only with close scrutiny and action that good can prevail.


21 posted on 07/09/2018 8:09:05 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
On September 11, 2001, Brett Kavenaugh was in the White House with his wife when the plane hit the Pentagon. They were instructed to run for their lives from the White House as another plane was on the way. That would have been Flight 93. He saw the destruction which muslims wrought that day. He lived it. No doubt that colored his view of the NSA surveillance.
 
22 posted on 07/09/2018 8:09:25 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (MAGA in the mornin', MAGA in the evenin', MAGA at suppertime . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurkinanloomin

rand paul is a fraud, a poseur, an attention whore, and, at heart, a liberal. the fact that you have to drag in a couple of historically bad senators to make your idol seem to suck less proves the fatal weakness of your argument.


23 posted on 07/09/2018 8:10:13 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Trump was for this.


24 posted on 07/09/2018 8:10:53 PM PDT by fortheDeclaration
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Luke21

I think Trump will do better.


25 posted on 07/09/2018 8:11:54 PM PDT by fortheDeclaration
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Yaelle

it’s creepy how the paulbots are all perfectly ready to redefine the pauls’ hysterical lust for attention as “standing on principle” — and it’s simply because he says “constitution” almost as often as he says “I”, “me”, and “my”.


26 posted on 07/09/2018 8:13:45 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

It was about metadata—not the content from calls. Back in the old days, police weren’t allowed to listen to or record our telephone calls without warrants. But they were allowed to find out where we were. Do you see?

Granted, there’s more to it than that, including information about who’s calling, who we’re calling, etc.

But I don’t know what Kavanaugh could have legally done about it. It may be, that we needed Congress to legislate on the matter or to repeal some legislation. Most of the Fourth Amendment violations implemented in judicial decisions have come from Congress. For judges, it can be difficult to decide against congressional laws sometimes, and even more difficult for judges who are not in the Supreme Court.


27 posted on 07/09/2018 8:14:05 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
As I read the whole story, Kavanaugh says the constitution doesn't forbid the collection, but since congress has now outlawed it, he would follow current law and find it illegal.

I do not see a huge problem if it is honestly explained.

28 posted on 07/09/2018 8:14:16 PM PDT by CurlyDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Theophilus

care to explain that one?


29 posted on 07/09/2018 8:14:59 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: JohnBrowdie

A couple?
I count ten.
Ten traitors.
Four of them re-elected AFTER their betrayal.
And you probably cheered their re-election.
Just because they wear an R jersey even if they vote to give the Democrats a permanent majority.


30 posted on 07/09/2018 8:17:37 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Didn’t the NSA recently delete those phone records anyway?


31 posted on 07/09/2018 8:18:06 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kazan
Like when he has supported legalizing recreational drugs and prostitution?
===============

Both of which are legal in some states. Do you want the fed gov telling you how to live? Like it or not, pot & hookers are here to stay.

32 posted on 07/09/2018 8:19:11 PM PDT by sailor76 ( TRUMP, is still my hero.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Lurkinanloomin

Wait until they bring up Kavanugh’s stonewalling Patrick Knowlton, in the coverup of Vince Foster’s death.


33 posted on 07/09/2018 8:22:11 PM PDT by sailor76 ( TRUMP, is still my hero.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Kazan
"Like when he has supported legalizing recreational drugs and prostitution?"

Yes, especially from his State of Kentucky. Too many people there have been suffering horribly from the normalization of dope.


34 posted on 07/09/2018 8:26:15 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: JohnBrowdie

Rand Paul is consistent on these matters, and I trust his sincerity. But he must careful to avoid losing ground.


35 posted on 07/09/2018 8:26:40 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Lurkinanloomin

you cannot justify bad behavior by pointing to someone else’s bad behavior.

period.

so, give it up.


36 posted on 07/09/2018 8:39:02 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric

yes. he is consistently concerned only with the size of his own image in the MSM.

this is NOT standing on principle. it us the prostitution of principle.

your emperor has no clothes.


37 posted on 07/09/2018 8:41:15 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Architect of Avalon

He will talk tough then confirm.


38 posted on 07/09/2018 8:41:48 PM PDT by arrogantsob (See "Chaos and Mayhem" at Amazon.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: arrogantsob

Bet on.


39 posted on 07/09/2018 8:43:32 PM PDT by Architect of Avalon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: JohnBrowdie

I am no Paul bot. I’ve disagreed with him and especially his father on many issues. We might have some issue with Trump’s choice. I’ll mow his lawn if he gets my concerns brought up in the hearing. His neighbor won’t hit a girl.


40 posted on 07/09/2018 8:43:51 PM PDT by Yaelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-52 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson