Posted on 07/07/2015 8:44:04 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Olson dings Cruz's proposal to revamp the Supreme Court.
Conservative attorney and prominent gay rights activist Ted Olson took a swipe Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz , saying the freshman senator had abandoned a fundamental understanding of the constitution when he suggested a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality.
Immediately following the Court’s decision, Cruz promised to keep the issue “front and center” in his campaign. ”That is very much front and center something I intend to campaign on,” he said. “And marriage and religious liberty are going to be integral, I believe, to motivating the American people to come out and vote for what’s, ultimately, restoring our constitutional system.”
Cruz subsequently proposed altering the Constitution to require Supreme Court justices to face judicial retention elections.
Olson, a former United States Solicitor General under George W. Bush, ridiculed Cruz’s plan as politically unachievable: “A constitutional amendment to change Article III of the Constitution in this fashion has virtually no chance of succeeding … I would think that most graduates of the Harvard Law School know that,” he said in an email to the Washington Post.
After arguing against him in Bush v. Gore, Olson famously joined progressive David Boies in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case affirming the overturning of California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
For his part, Cruz, who as Olson points out is a graduate of Harvard Law School, served as a law clerk for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist from 1996 to 1997 before eventually going on to become solicitor general of Texas.
Despite his Ivy League education, the freshmen senator also revealed a basic lack of understanding of world religions when he recently predicted that the Supreme Court ruling would result in the Justice Department targeting “Jewish churches” that refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
He was at 3% at this point in his senate race, so it’s no biggie...
When abolitionist Republicans first started proposing that our Constitution be amended to free slaves and to grant black men the right to vote - that also had “no chance of succeeding”, until decades later and after a war that nearly tore our country apart.
That’s also something a Harvard graduate should know.
It takes principled leaders - like the pre Civil War abolitionists and like Ted Cruz - to advocate for needed change even when such change seems unpopular and impossible.
That’s also something that unfortunately many Harvard graduates, like Olson, don’t know. Intelligence and wisdom are not the same thing. The former require academics only, the latter requires the application of intelligence based on virtue.
Ted Cruz, Mr. 4%.
I think you are correct.
I guess so.
Yawn.
I can recall when scorchings actually left you singed a bit ;’)
Ha!
Amen to that
Ted quit being a conservative long ago
ridiculed Cruz’s plan as politically unachievable: “A constitutional amendment to change Article III of the Constitution in this fashion has virtually no chance of succeeding."
And why is that Olsen? You don't tell us why is it not politically unachievable? This is not an answer. Is it you think that it doesn't have enough political support? Political winds do change, and sometimes faster than you would think so. Why people believe lawyers are always smart is beyond me.
But I agree with you.
(I'm so ashamed of myself)
Wait what?
I would hope that they teach what is Constitutionally achievable, and not what's politically achievable at Harvard Law.
Olson is spouting nonsense.
OOlson is a RINO.
Cruz? Alan Dershowitz calls him “the most brilliant law student” he ever had.
some guy has a different opinion of whether a constitutional amendment is political possible or not
we have had over two dozen const amendments so amendments ARE proven to be possible....
one guy assesses the political universe one way and another fellow sees it otherwise
it is NOT something that’s clear or defined, and it is not something that ‘every Harvard law student knows’ .. .that much is for sure
saying ‘every Harvard law student knows’ Ted Cruz is wrong... is just a cheap shot at Cruz, nothing more.
Olsen is good demonstration of a Green Hornet take off. ‘Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men?’. He was a closet politician under his enabler Bush. I have little respect for many people the Bushes put into our government. This should have/might have been expected considering the Bush family’s close connection to the Saudis and taking in/on a orphaned politician named Bill Clinton as a step child.
All I have to do is see the source is Salon and I can predict at least 98% of the coming spew.
Good point. Ted was absolutely condescending and a bunch of those other British words escaping me. Making in personal. Mr. Cruz is good at not doing that. I am looking forward to debates.
"The Shadow Knows."
Unfortunately, the Green Hornet did not.
The intro to the Green Hornet was:
With his faithful valet Kato, Britt Reid, daring young publisher, matches wits with the Underworld, risking his life so that criminals and racketeers within the law may feel its weight by the sting of the Green Hornet!
Guess Cruz can forget ever being on the Supreme Court lol.
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