Sen. Mike Lee Prays for Victims of London Terrorist Attack
WASHINGTON – Sen. Lee (R-UT) released the following statement today regarding Wednesday’s terror attack:
"My heart goes out to Kurt Cochran’s family on their loss, particularly his wife Melissa who was also injured. Utahns are known for supporting their neighbors in times of need, and I encourage citizens of my home state to rally to support the victims of this tragedy, both in our community and abroad. An attack like this is an attack on all of us. My prayers are with the victims, their families, and everyone touched by this tragedy.”
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March 24, 2017
"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life." --Abraham Lincoln
Chairman's Note: The Independent Judge The Court Needs
Everyone knows that Supreme Court confirmation hearings can be a dramatic, even emotional, events. The stakes are high.As a Senator, there are few responsibilities more important than deciding whether to vote for a nominee to the Supreme Court.
Unfortunately these days, it seems like being nominated to the Supreme Court is a lot like running for office. As we’ve seen over the past few weeks, there are a lot of interest groups on both sides that have mobilized for this confirmation process.
Judge Gorsuch, however, is not a politician. The acrimony, duplicity, and ruthlessness of today’s politics are still foreign and unfamiliar to him. May that continue to be true.
In a former life, I had the good fortune of appearing before Judge Gorsuch as a practicing attorney, so I know from personal experience that he is one of the very best judges in the country. He comes to oral argument prepared and asks probing, fair questions that help everyone better understand the arguments.
Judge Gorsuch does not promote an agenda or grandstand. He writes thoughtful and rigorous opinions that are not only careful and well-reasoned, but also easy – even pleasant – to read.
Judge Gorsuch has the resume of a Supreme Court justice. Yet what’s most impressive about his legal career and his approach to the law is his fierce independence from partisan and personal influence.
The judiciary is set apart from the other branches of our republic because we allow it to invalidate actions of the elected branches. Our confidence in the American judiciary depends entirely on judges like Judge Gorsuch - judges who are independent and whose only agenda is getting the law right.
Senate Democrats tried to tear Judge Gorsuch down this week. But it did not work.
They tried to argue that Judge Gorsuch was outside the mainstream. But this is not what Democrats said the last time Judge Gorsuch appeared before this committee. In fact, Judge Gorsuch’s nomination to the Tenth Circuit was so uncontroversial that Senator Graham was the only member of the Judiciary Committee who bothered to show up at his confirmation hearing, and he was confirmed unanimously on a voice vote.
Senate Democrats questioned Judge Gorsuch’s independence, because, in their view, he hadn’t sufficiently criticized the President’s comments about judges. But Judge Gorsuch has made his views on this subject abundantly clear.
Democrats complained that Judge Gorsuch did not provide enough hints about how he would rule on certain issues. But that’s a reason for confirmation, not against it.
In our system, judges don’t provide advisory opinions, they decide cases and controversies only after each side has an opportunity to make its case before the bench. And they do so outside of political influence.
Senate Democrats also attacked some of Judge Gorsuch’s past rulings. They said he was hostile to particular types of claims or to particular plaintiffs. But you can’t evaluate someone’s judicial record by looking at who wins or loses in his courtroom. In our system, you face the same burden of convincing the court regardless of who you are, and judges don’t decide cases based on their own personal preferences. And the record shows that Judge Gorsuch has applied the law neutrally in all cases, without regard to the parties.
Judge Gorsuch’s reputation won’t be affected by how Democrats attacked him this week. The same, however, can’t be said of the Senate. The night Judge Gorsuch was nominated he said the U.S. Senate is the greatest deliberative body in the world.
I agree.
But these days, it seems like this title is more of a challenge than an observation. Hopefully Judge Gorsuch will be proved right when his nomination moves to the Senate floor in two weeks.
Issue in Focus: Preserving Fair Internet Competition
“Senate Votes to Kill Privacy Rules Guarding Your Online Info,” ABC News blares.
“Senate Votes to Undo Internet Privacy Rules,” CNN claims.
“Senate Votes to Let ISPs Sell Your Data Without Consent,” MSNBC says.
Reading these headlines Friday morning you might think that the United States Senate just voted to massively change how the Internet was regulated in a way that would significantly undermine your privacy rights.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is that the Senate voted Thursday to preserve the exact same rules that have protected consumers and allowed competition to thrive since the Internet was created decades ago.
Here are the facts: from the beginning of the Internet, both the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) you contract with for your home telecommunications needs (Comcast, Verizon, TimeWarner, etc.) and the companies you access on the Internet (Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc.) were both regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC created and enforced uniform privacy rules for both Internet providers and Internet firms.
But then in 2015 the Obama administration transferred regulatory control of ISPs from the FTC to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by reclassifying them as public utilities. They then began working on new privacy rules that would apply only to ISPs and not to the major firms such as Facebook that you actually send your data to on a daily basis. These new rules were not published until October 2016 and were scheduled to go into effect later this year.
If this proposed new regulatory situation doesn’t strike you as inherently unfair and nonsensical, consider a typical Americans interaction with ISPs and their favored Internet companies on a daily basis.
A typical American may wake up in the morning and check Gmail and Facebook on their home computer; this sends data to Google, Facebook, and their chosen home ISP. Then this American will hop in a car and access their Google Map and Spotify apps from their mobile phone; this sends their data to Google and Spotify and a completely different mobile ISP. This same American will then arrive at work or school where they will again send Google, Facebook and other apps their data and to a third, completely new ISP.
Why should these three separate ISPs be held to a more restrictive and expensive privacy standard than other Internet firms, such as Google, Facebook, and Spotify, especially when the latter are receiving and utilizing a far more comprehensive stream of personal data?
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Sen. Lee Praises Decision to Pull House Health Bill
SALT LAKE CITY – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Friday after House leadership canceled a vote on the American Health Care Act:
“The decision to pull this bill was a sound, commonsense one. We can now begin the hard and necessary process to get this right.”
“We will begin working collaboratively here in the Senate and with our friends in the House to produce a bill that will get 51 votes in the Senate and 216 in the House. The bill will reduce costs, save taxpayers money, and make our health care system great again.”
“The reality is that the current House bill was not ready for the House floor and certainly not ready for the Senate. We need an open, transparent, and deliberate process. The stakes for all Americans are simply too high for anything else.”
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