A federal panel said Thursday that it doesn’t have the authority to consider the merit of misconduct complaints filed against Justice Brett Kavanaugh for his behavior during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and tossed them out.

The Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal judiciary’s policy-making body, said in an order Thursday that because the legislation that sets the procedures for handling misconduct complaints does not apply to Supreme Court justices, the committee lacks the authority to consider the merits of the complaints.