Ted Cruz has made it no secret that he doesn’t want the next justice on the United States Supreme Court to be chosen by President Obama. Today he put that thought into writing, penning a scathing op-ed for the Wall Street Journal illustrating exactly why he doesn’t think a new justice should be seated until after November’s election.
Cruz, who is running for President and thus is hoping it’ll be him making the appointment, notes in his article that “in 2014 when the American people last spoke in a nationwide election, they clearly repudiated Democratic governance and elected a Republican Senate majority.” In his mind, this means that voters should have a choice to elect a Republican president before a justice is selected.
He also lays out the differences the parties have in judicial philosophies.
President Obama and Democrats favor justices who see the Constitution as a potter sees clay—something that can be molded to achieve their desired results. This has led the Supreme Court to invent rights that are nowhere in the Constitution—like the right to an abortion or to same-sex marriage—and ignore or restrict rights that even nonlawyers can’t miss—like the First and Second Amendments.
Republicans view things very differently. We believe the Constitution has a fixed meaning and a judge’s task is limited—to discover what that meaning is, not to make it up.
This article is part of Cruz’s strategy to establish himself as the strict constitutionalists choice in the Republican nomination fight. Read the whole thing at the Wall Street Journal.