Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 9-0 decision in favor of putting former and potentially future President Donald Trump on the ballot, ruling that the "responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States." As Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was all too happy to remind on Monday when the decision came out, he predicted such an outcome, and that he also led a brief that 179 members of Congress signed. He also reacted to the decision during the Wednesday episode of "The Verdict," the podcast he co-hosts with Ben Ferguson.
Cruz again reminded that he predicted the decision last December from the Colorado Supreme Court throwing Trump off of the ballot would not stand, something he said he believed "100 percent." This even comes as the senator acknowledged "that's always dangerous to make a prediction where you're predicting 100 percent, but we went further because I said not only is it 100 percent that it will be reversed, I said at the time literally the day after the decision, I said, I think there's a very good chance the decision is unanimous." Cruz made such a prediction even after others were hesitant to say it would be unanimous.
"What is most significant about Monday's decision is that it was 9-0," Cruz said, also explaining that "it was not assigned opinion it was a per curiam. Per curiam opinions are done so it does not have any particular justice who has authorship of the opinion." He does have a "strong suspicion" it was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, though. Cruz explained further that per curiam "can be a tool to emphasize that this is the opinion of the entire court," something he called "critically important."
Acknowledging that "we have some very liberal justices," the senator also emphasized it "is a big, big deal" that it was a 9-0 decision, something he said he was "grateful" for. While Cruz reminded that the result would have been the same had it been a 6-3 decision, that it was unanimous is better for the country and the Court.
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"If we had woken up, if we had turned on the TV or picked up our phones and looked and saw that it was a 6-3 decision, it was just straight party lines, and the three Democrat appointees were like 'no, no, no, you must throw Trump off the ballot, he's an insurrectionist,' the result would have been the same Trump would have stayed on the ballot. But I think that would have been a terrible outcome for the country. And I think it would have been a terrible outcome for the court," he offered.
This also applies to the Court's image, as Cruz discussed further.
"Look, just about every major institution in our country, its credibility has been undermined in recent years, people have less faith in the institutions of our country to understand why we've seen a lot of our institutions really corrupted and you and I talk about that a lot on this podcast," he acknowledged. "But for the Court, I think it's important for the long-term rule of law in our nation. I think it's important for the protection of our constitutional liberties for the Court to have some modicum of credibility. And so, I am grateful for the Democratic appointees for doing the right thing, the right thing under the law. But it was important for the court, and I think it is important for the country. I think the statement that that the unanimity makes."
In addition to this Trump v. Anderson case, Brown v. Board from 1954 was also unanimous and had far-reaching consequences of desegregation. As he described the case and referred to Brown as "one of the most important if not the most important decision the Supreme Court has ever issued," emphasizing how "the Court wanted to speak with one unanimous voice," Cruz again brought up how "grateful" he was for unanimous decisions.
"I am grateful that here the Court likewise spoke with one unanimous voice and this decision, in my view, says democracy is paramount that it is the voters who decide that it is not partisans, whether that be partisan judges, as we had Colorado or partisan officials, as we had in Maine or Illinois. It is not partisans of either party, that should be in the business of saying, 'I don't want the voters to vote for their choice. I want to throw my opponent off the ballot,'" Cruz stressed.
He also reminded with such decisions "it was not any objective requirement of the law," but rather "it was simply these partisans hated Donald Trump and fundamentally, I think they were afraid the voters, if given the chance, would vote for him. I think that's right. And I'm glad the Supreme Court said you know, what, the voters are going to decide, it's not going to be partisans."
It is important for the Supreme Court & for our country that the decision for President Trump was unanimous.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 6, 2024
This is a major victory for the rule of law & a major defeat for the partisans who are terrified that voters are going to reelect Donald Trump.https://t.co/LRIWnhvhIh pic.twitter.com/JwUIE8MAHy
While Ferguson and Cruz discussed the shockingly accurate reporting of the decision from the mainstream media, there were, of course, hysterical liberal reactions as well, as Matt covered. The podcast also featured a montage from NewsBusters highlighting some.
When it comes to these "partisan hacks in the media who are losing their minds," Cruz said his favorite reaction was the question of "are the Supreme Court just partisans?" The senator again reminded, though, that in the decision being a unanimous one, even the liberal justices agreed states cannot kick Trump off of the ballot. This includes Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. To refer to her as a partisan is "truly absurd," Cruz emphasized.
There was a split of 5-4 on the grounds of the decision, which Cruz acknowledged. While Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with the three liberals, Cruz wished to highlight the final paragraph of her concurring opinion, as Katie did on Monday. "In my judgment, this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency. The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home," Barrett wrote.
"I think Amy Coney Barrett was exactly right. The fact that it was unanimous is an important victory for the Supreme Court. It's an important victory for the rule of law. It's an important victory for the country and it's an important victory for democracy," Cruz shared.
As we also covered after the unanimous ruling came down, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) shared on CNN that he and other Democrats were working to "revive legislation" to kick Trump off of the ballot, as he claimed Trump incited "an insurrection." It was a response Ferguson called "psycho."
Cruz also reminded that Raskin was actually a constitutional law professor, "but yet his partisan extremism is overwhelming" with such a response. He also objected to certifying the 2016 election results that deemed Trump the winner as one of his first acts of Congress in 2017, something he bragged about on his official website. "So, what he calls an insurrection is actually one of the very first acts Jamie Raskin ever did in Congress," Cruz pointed out.
The senator also had a message about the Democratic Party overall and their strong opposition to Trump.
"Look, today's Democrat Party, they're so consumed by hate, that they really have convinced themselves that Trump is the devil, that Trump is Hitler, that Trump is so horrible that anything anything, anything is justifiable. And the irony is, every one of those Democrats still puffs out their chest and says we must defend democracy. And in their telling, we must defend democracy by stopping the damn voters from voting for someone we don't want them to vote for," Cruz emphasized, with Ferguson offering "there's no accepting that they may be wrong or they lose an election or a ruling."
Super Tuesday BLOWOUT! plus UNANIMOUS Supreme Court Victory for Trump & Unanimous Reversal of 100+ J6 Sentences. @benfergusonshow break down all this and more on Verdict. Available wherever you get your podcasts. https://t.co/LRIWnhvhIh
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 6, 2024
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