Sen. Harris asks Kavanaugh to recuse himself from upcoming net neutrality cases

While Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh‘s views on network neutrality were not brought up much during his televised confirmation hearings, several senators asked him about the internet protections in follow-up questions that he responded to in writing. Sen Kamala Harris (D-CA) asked Kavanaugh if he would recuse himself from a hypothetical he may preside over in the future surrounding net neutrality and the First Amendment. The question follows Kavanaugh’s dissent he wrote as a judge in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in a case that upheld the 2015 Open Internet Order, a rule that enshrined net neutrality protections and was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2017. “Given that you have already staked out such a clear position on the unconstitutionality of net neutrality, will you commit to recusing yourself from a case if the Supreme Court were to consider a future First Amendment challenge to net neutrality?” she asked. The nominee declined to say he would recuse himself. “As I discussed at the hearing, and in keeping with the nominee precedent of previous nominees, it would be improper for me as a sitting judge and a nominee to comment on cases or issues that might come before me, including a possible recusal,” he responded. “Litigants in future cases are entitled to a fair and impartial judge who has an open mind and has not committed to rule on their cases in a particular way. Likewise, judicial independence requires that nominees refrain from making commitments to members of the political branches. In keeping with those principles and the precedent of prior nominees, I therefore cannot provide my views on a potential recusal.”