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.
And idiot Olsen forgot the supreme court does not re write laws to save them.
You darn right it did. Somebody bought and paid for this whore.
LOL, good one. Over to you jack black.
Took the whole bottle of Dumbass pills huh
He would serve this country much better as president. He would have no problem shit caning the crap the left has rammed down our throats. Man that will be fun to watch.
Cruz’ solution is a lot more conservative than mine: Six lengths of rope and a tall tree.
So proposing to amend the Constitution is something Harvard teaches against?
Moron.
There is a reason I don’t hire leftwing lawyers. This idiot is a prime example. (And I hire a lot of lawyers.)
I like a lot of his policies, but frankly he looks completely over matched at this point. Also, his flip flops on trade and some of his other positions have hurt him. That's why he's lost about 1/2 of his supporters in the last month or so. Hard to come back from that. People liked you, and then walked away. Many here on FR walked away because of the TPP waffling, and his H1B visa position.
You have seen it, so I have. It happened.
Can he win them back, in this crowded field? Unlikely. Most candidates at 4% will go to zero and exit the race sometime before South Carolina. Maybe Ted hangs tough, he's got $51 million (most of it from millionaire super-pac donors, but still, it's real money) so he can run his hand out.
The best news I've seen for Ted is that he's ahead in Texas. Texans prefer him to Perry by 20% to 16%, and I accept their judgement that he's a better candidate than Perry.
But what other state can he win? Not New Hampshire, he's in 9th place. Not Iowa, he's in 8th place. Not in South Carolina, he's in 4th place.
I hope he makes the debates, but I don't see a path to him winning the nomination, even if he does.
I'm both an optimist and a realist. My realist side says the dream is almost over for Ted. He can go back to the Senate and do a lot of good, hold his head high, and run again in 2020.
The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has him at 18:1 to win the nomination. That's pretty rich, but I'll give you 10:1 and a $100 bet. Nice odds.
Put your money where you mouth is?
I really like the idea of amending the Constitution, but not Ted's amendment. Walker had the better suggestion: amend to make heterosexual marriage the only marriage in the nation.
Ted's suggestion is not as good.
“Can he win them back, in this crowded field?”
Very doubtful. Ted slipped a bit but what’s really going to
hinder his rebound is Trump. Donald just grabbed the ball and ran away with it. In the last couple of weeks
Cruz hasn’t been able to do much more than agree with Trump and hope some of the fire rubs off on him.
Troll-just so we’re clear- Why don’t you take your “concern” about Cruz elsewhere?
Ted married an uber leftist......and he has totally lost any brain cells he had.
BY DEFINITION if one modifies the Constitution, then it’s Constitutional. That applies to us modifying the Constitution to protect marriage, and that applies to their side modifying the Constitution to end free speech and gun rights (whether we like it or not).
Olsen needs to get on an airplane again.
Funny how he was never really considered conservative enough to be touted as a "Conservative Lawyer" until it came time to attack Cruz with him.
The Left is vewy-vewy afwaid of Ted Cruz!
Conservative Attorney and prominent gay rights activist is a contradiction in terms.
Since Olsen is so concerned that Cruz “abandoned a fundamental understanding of the constitution,” especially as a Harvard Law graduate, then he must have really condemned Obama over the years… you know, seeing how Obama is the opposition.
Not everyone who went to Harvard drank the Kool-Aid.
Olson doesn’t like the thought of limiting the judicial branch’s powers because it would mitigate the power of malefactors such as himself.
“Conservative attorney and prominent gay rights activist”
.................
No such thing.
How did we know this was Salon. “Absolutely scorches”? Bah. This guy is saying that Cruz is suggesting an amendment that would never be passed. That’s hardly scorching. It’s just his own opinion as a coward. He would probably say that man could never walk on the moon or Mount Everest could never be climbed. If you give up before you try, nothing will ever change.
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