Cruz says Trump ‘spoke to me seriously’ about Supreme Court vacancies

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday said President Trump spoke to him “seriously” about filling a hypothetical Supreme Court vacancy in his first term but maintained that his priority is policy fights instead of ruling on legal battles.

“In the first Trump term, the president spoke to me seriously about all three vacancies, and three times I said no, because I don’t want to be out of the arena of the political battle,” Cruz said during a Wall Street Journal Opinion Live interview. 

“I think there’s, there’s, there’s too much need there,” the Texas lawmaker added, referring to policy battles in Congress.

The comments come as Trump weighs potential Supreme Court vacancies in his second term, should Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito consider retiring from their lifetime appointments.

“Getting these nominations through is very tough, and he’s the only guy I know who’ll get 100 percent of the Democrat vote, 100 percent of the Republican vote,” Trump said of a potential Cruz nomination going through the Senate, while at a February event in Corpus Christi, Texas

“They want to get him out of there,” he added.

While the president has had many Supreme Court wins, his policy agenda has taken blows as Trump’s reciprocal tariffs were struck down and justices have shown skepticism toward validating his argument against birthright citizenship despite the 6-3 conservative justice majority. 

During the first Trump administration, the president nominated Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. He’s said Cruz fits the mold. 

Cruz has a background in litigation, with a law degree from Harvard Law School. He served as a legal adviser in the George W. Bush administration and as an associate deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice, according to a congressional biography.

The Texas lawmaker was also solicitor general of Texas for five years, becoming the first Hispanic and youngest person in that role in state history.

But Cruz says a position on the court isn’t for him. 

“I don’t want to be a judge. A principled federal judge stays out of policy fights and stays out of political fights. If I were a judge, I would do that. I don’t want to do that. I want to be right in the middle of political and policy fights. And if you want to do that, the right place to do that is an elected office,” he said during the Wall Street Journal event.

“And listen, we were talking a minute ago about some of the policy victories we’ve won, things like school choice and the Trump accounts. If I were a judge, neither one of those would exist, because the only reason they’re there is because I wrote the bill and then fought tooth and nail to get them in the bill,” he added, noting that Congress needs “principled” free market conservatives, “who know how to fight and know how to win.”

“And so I’d like to be part of nominating and confirming dozens, hundreds of principled constitutionalist judges. I don’t want me to be one of them,” Cruz added.

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