Luther: Ted Cruz is champion for the Constitution and for judicial nominations

Judicial nominations are the most important item on the ballot this election, so I am supporting Senator Ted Cruz. A respected lawyer and Supreme Court advocate in his own right, Senator Cruz helped President Trump appoint 231 federal judges—including three Supreme Court justices and 54 appellate judges.

As Associate Counsel to the President in the Trump White House, my job was to help select judicial nominees who were committed constitutionalists. But choosing the right candidates was only half the battle. Often the real fight was U.S. Senate confirmation. Throughout these battles, President Trump had no stronger ally than Senator Cruz. He helped speedily confirm judges who were deeply committed to upholding the Constitution, promoting the rule of law, and defending the rights of all American citizens.

These judges are already doing a fantastic job. From striking down the Biden-Harris administration’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate—to reigning in the power of unelected bureaucrats—they have done their duty to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

Nowhere has Senator Cruz’s impact on the federal judiciary been more apparent than in Texas. When President Trump assumed office, Texas had historically high numbers of judicial vacancies, with three vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and eleven vacancies on the four Texas federal district courts.

Robert Luther III

Immediately after President Trump was sworn in, Senator Cruz worked closely with the administration to fill these fourteen Texas vacancies in record time. By the end of the Trump administration, every single Texas judgeship was filled.

The judges that Senator Cruz helped place on the bench in Texas are the cream of the crop. Three of the six judges confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit—Judges James Ho, Kyle Duncan, and Don Willett—were on President Trump’s shortlist for the U.S. Supreme Court and a fourth—Judge Andrew Oldham—is one of the federal judiciary’s brightest young stars.

In addition to his work confirming great judges to the bench, Senator Cruz has done an excellent job opposing and defeating the Biden-Harris administration’s most radical nominees. Consider the recent nomination of Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn to be a federal judge on the powerful U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. As a federal magistrate judge, Judge Netburn ordered a biological male serial rapist to serve his sentence in a women’s prison because, in his 50’s, he began to identify as transgender. Predictably, he reoffended while in a women’s prison and sexually harassed female inmates.

Senator Cruz successfully persuaded Democrat Senator Ossoff to break party lines and vote “no”—defeating Netburn’s nomination. These victories are rare, and this victory is a testament to Senator Cruz’s bipartisan influence.

Senator Cruz also led the opposition to Adeel Mangi for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mangi served on the advisory board for a radical organization that hosted a convicted terrorist financier on the 20^th anniversary of 9/11. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Mangi was also part of another group that praised cop-killers as so-called “freedom fighters.” Senator Cruz has done an exceptional job drawing attention to Mangi’s disgraceful record, and there is a strong likelihood that this nomination will be defeated, too. 

Texans are well-served by Senator Cruz’s exceptional ability to play on both sides of the ball as a leader on the Senate Judiciary Committee. On offense, he’s done an outstanding job helping President Trump confirm stalwart constitutionalists to the federal bench, and in January, he hopefully will do so again. On defense, he’s defended the American people from the Biden-Harris administration’s most radical judicial nominees. All Americans—but especially Texans—are fortunate to have Senator Cruz in the U.S. Senate.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Robert Luther III. Luther serves as Distinguished Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and is the founder of Constitutional Solutions PLLC. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author.

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