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President Trump's Supreme Court nominee argued last year that net neutrality rules violate the First Amendment rights of Internet service providers by preventing them from "exercising editorial control" over Internet content.
Trump's pick is Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The DC Circuit twice upheld the net neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, despite Kavanaugh's dissent. (In another tech-related case, Kavanaugh ruled that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone metadata is legal.)
While current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai eliminated the net neutrality rules, Kavanaugh could help restrict the FCC's authority to regulate Internet providers as a member of the Supreme Court. Broadband industry lobby groups have continued to seek Supreme Court review of the legality of Wheeler's net neutrality rules even after Pai's repeal.
[...] Consumers generally expect ISPs to deliver Internet content in un-altered form. But Kavanaugh argued that ISPs are like cable TV operators—since cable TV companies can choose not to carry certain channels, Internet providers should be able to choose not to allow access to a certain website, he wrote.
"Internet service providers may not necessarily generate much content of their own, but they may decide what content they will transmit, just as cable operators decide what content they will transmit," Kavanaugh wrote. "Deciding whether and how to transmit ESPN and deciding whether and how to transmit ESPN.com are not meaningfully different for First Amendment purposes."
Kavanaugh's argument did not address the business differences between cable TV and Internet service.
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Sunday July 15 2018, @01:45PM (3 children)
Brett Michael Kavanaugh, born 1965. Mother Lawyer and father was the president of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. All laws and being boss.
So lawyer lawyer.. [wikipedia.org]
This mindset of a cable providing "programming" likely stem from a 1960s mindset which can't cognitively grasp a networking view. The lawyer environment mindset is to make laws and enforce them. Realities be damned and people. Going to be more problems from this lifeform in the feature.
Oh btw.. ever seen any larger congregation of engineers in the government? ;-)
This lawyer cognition is likely also one of their great weaknesses. Exploit!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 15 2018, @02:37PM (2 children)
Judges tend to be developmentally delayed and incapable of understanding that the world is a complex place. They've got the intellectual and moral development of a high school student, but have a huge amount of power.
They generally can't grasp the consequences of things like declaring corporations to be people or declaring Bush to be President without actually counting the votes when doing so. And they can't comprehend the fact that the constitution does apply to everything that happens in the US, including areas near the borders.
Basically judges are subhumans and it wouldn't surprise me if in the near future it becomes open season on federal judges as that's the only way to remove the incompetent and corrupt judges that have been seated. The Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for not having filled those seats while Obama was in office.
(Score: 2) by bitstream on Sunday July 15 2018, @03:13PM (1 child)
Any proof of this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 15 2018, @09:21PM
Hundreds of years of batshit insane legal decisions.