Ted Cruz: Supreme Court Nominees Should Have ‘Paper Trail’ to Prove Conservatism

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who recently called for amending the Constitution to allow the public to vote on Supreme Court judges, says strict constructionist Supreme Court justices with a solid paper trail are needed.

Cruz believes that the main problem is that Supreme Court justices are being chosen without a proven paper trail. He points to former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who he says was not vetted properly by President George H.W. Bush and turned into one of the most liberal justices the court has seen in some time.

“In one room was Edith Jones, the rock-ribbed conservative on the 5th Circuit Court Of Appeals who follows the Constitution, who doesn’t legislate from the bench,” Cruz tells The Daily Signal. “In the other room was David Souter. He chose David Souter because it would be easier. He had never defended conservative principles so there was nothing to defend and David Souter turned into a racial, liberal judicial activist.”

Cruz has more criticism for George W. Bush and his nomination of current Chief Justice John Roberts.

“In one room, was John Roberts and in another room was Mike Luttig, my former boss, the strongest conservative appellate judge in the country, someone who had been Antonin Scalia’s very first law clerk, who had spent over a decade following the law and Constitution faithfully and once again, George W. Bush chose the easier decision.” Cruz laments. “John Roberts didn’t have a paper trail. You couldn’t prove he was a conservative.”

Cruz believes that if Edith Jones and Mike Luttig were on the Supreme Court today, America would be a vastly different place.

“Obamacare would have been struck down three years ago,” Cruz says. “The marriage decision, I am certain, would have come out the other way because those are jurists who would have followed the Constitution and law, rather than legislating their own radical agendas from the bench.”