Sen. Cruz: This Week, Two Exemplary Judges Will Be Confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today delivered remarks on the Senate floor in support of Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, and former Texas Solicitor General Jim Ho, nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

“This week is a great week for the state of Texas and for the federal judiciary because this week we will be confirming two exemplary judges to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from the state of Texas: Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett and former Texas Solicitor General Jim Ho,” Sen. Cruz said. “I have known the both of them for decades. Both are close friends. Both are brilliant lawyers. Both have spent decades earning a reputation as principled constitutionalists who will remain faithful to the law and will not impose their own policy preferences from the bench. Beyond that, both Don and Jim are testaments to the American dream. They’ve both taken different paths to the Fifth Circuit, but both of their stories encapsulate what is so incredible about this great nation.”

Watch Sen. Cruz’s floor speech in its entirety here. The full text of his remarks is below:

“Mr. President, this week is a great week for the state of Texas and for the federal judiciary because this week, we will be confirming two exemplary judges to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from the state of Texas: Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett and former Texas Solicitor General Jim Ho.

“These will be the 11th and 12th Court of Appeals nominees that we will have confirmed this year - a modern-day record. Indeed, I looked up just the other day the number of assigned slots on the federal Courts of Appeals. It's 179. Which means the 12 that have been nominated and confirmed this year represent roughly seven percent of the appellate bench. That is a powerful accomplishment for the first year of the presidency. A powerful accomplishment for this Republican majority in the Senate. And a powerful legacy that will extend decades into the future; protecting our Constitutional rights, protecting the Bill of Rights, protecting the First Amendment - our free speech, our religious liberty, protecting the Second Amendment, protecting all the fundamental liberties we enjoy as Americans.

“With respect to Don Willett and Jim Ho, I have known the both of them for decades. Both are close friends. Both are brilliant lawyers. Both have spent decades earning a reputation as principled constitutionalists who will remain faithful to the law and will not impose their own policy preferences from the bench. Beyond that, both Don and Jim are testaments to the American dream. They’ve both taken different paths to the Fifth Circuit, but both of their stories encapsulate what is so incredible about this great nation.

“Justice Willett was born ‘Donny Ray Willett’ – his birth certificate does not say Donald, it says ‘Donny Ray,’ – in July of 1966 to an unwed teenage mother. He was a sickly and frail newborn, who was not even expected to survive to Christmas. But he was nursed back to health, and then adopted by an incredible couple who were unable to have their own children. Justice Willett grew up in a doublewide trailer, in a small town of just 32 people, surrounded by cotton and cattle. His town had a cotton gin and a Catholic church. That is about it.

“Justice Willett suffered heartbreak early in life. His father passed away at age 40, just two weeks after Justice Willett turned six years old. He was raised by his widowed mother, who waited tables at the local truck stop. She would leave the trailer for her six a.m. shift before Justice Willett even woke up in the morning. He would wake himself, get fed, dressed, and then catch the bus to a neighboring town to go to school.

“Justice Willett was the first person in his family to even finish high school, let alone to college, and then to law school. He has four degrees. He got his bachelor’s from Baylor as a triple major in economics, finance, and public administration. He then received a Masters degree in political science, a law degree, and an LLM degree from Duke.

“After law school, he clerked on the Fifth Circuit – the court on which he will be soon be serving - for Judge Jerre Williams. Then, after two and a half years in a large law firm, he decided to dedicate his career to public service. He worked for Governor George W. Bush in Texas and then for President Bush in D.C. He and I worked closely together in that regard. After doing his time in D.C., he happily returned to the great state of Texas to serve as the Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel. Don served alongside me, working under then-Attorney General Greg Abbott. We had offices just down the hall from each other.

“In 2005, he was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve as an Associate Justice on the Texas Supreme Court, and he has been reelected by the People of Texas to that Court in 2006 and again in 2012. 

“I cannot tell you how proud I am to see Justice Willett confirmed as a judge on the Fifth Circuit and to see his lifetime of service continue in this new arena. 

“Jim Ho took a different path to the Fifth Circuit, but his story is just as powerful as an example of the American dream.

“Jim was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was just one year old. For the first few years of his life, his family lived with relatives in Queens, New York. Jim learned English watching Sesame Street. His family then moved to Southern California, where he attended high school and then went on to college at Stanford University. 

“In 1996, Jim enrolled at the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with high honors in 1999. He then moved to Texas for the first time in his life, accepting a clerkship in Houston with Judge Jerry Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Again the same court on which he is preparing to serve. It was during the end of his clerkship in Houston that he started dating his law school classmate and now his wife Allyson, a Houston native, and another dear friend of mine. 

“In 2000, Jim moved to Washington, D.C., to join the law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. In 2001, he joined the U.S. Department of Justice as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, working under now-U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. Later that year, he joined the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. After two years at OLC, he came here, to the Senate, where he served as my colleague’s, the senior Senator from Texas, Senator Cornyn’s first Chief Counsel. After two years as Senator Cornyn’s chief counsel, Jim went to clerk on the Supreme Court for Justice Clarence Thomas.

“At the end of the clerkship, Jim and Allyson finally fulfilled their dream of coming back to Texas, where Jim rejoined the law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Dallas.

“Then, in 2008, my tenure as Solicitor General of Texas was coming to a close. And Attorney General Abbott told me if I was going to leave, I had to find my successor. I picked up the phone, and called my longtime friend Jim Ho and talked to Jim about coming to succeed me as Solicitor General. Jim came, agreed to take on the job, and did a remarkable job as the chief appellate lawyer for the state of Texas, representing Texas before the United States Supreme Court, and all the state and federal appellate courts.

“Jim served as Solicitor General from April 2008 until December 2010, when he returned to Dallas and once again rejoined Gibson Dunn as a partner, and a few years later, became co-chair of the firm’s Appellate and Constitutional Law practice group.

“Jim has done many extraordinary things, but nothing more so than marrying his wife Allyson, who is, like Jim, a Supreme Court advocate, and one of the most talented constitutional lawyers in the country. Allyson is my former law partner, and when I left the job as Solicitor General and went to the Morgan Lewis law firm, I promptly recruited Allyson to come lead the Supreme Court practice with me. And I’m proud to say, over the past five years, Jim’s wife Allyson, has argued more business cases before the United States Supreme Court than any lawyer in Texas.

“Jim has become a pillar of the legal community in Texas. And the outpouring of support he has received demonstrates that. To take just one example, I have a letter from Ron Kirk, the former Mayor of Dallas and a former member of President Obama’s Cabinet and, incidentally, the Democratic nominee for United States Senate that Senator Cornyn defeated in 2002. By any measure, a strong and prominent Democrat in the state of Texas.

“Mr. Kirk writes that: ‘The last time Texans got to fill a seat on the Fifth Circuit, it was Judge Gregg Costa, who this body confirmed by a well-deserved unanimous vote. As a lifelong Democrat and devoted member of the Obama cabinet, I ask you to give Jim Ho the same unanimous consent.’

“I agree. And I hope our Democrat friends in this body will set aside the partisan rancor, that has so characterized this year, and will listen to the words of one of their own – a member of Obama’s cabinet, a prominent Democrat from Texas – urging that Jim Ho be confirmed unanimously. 

“Sadly Senate Democrats insisted on and provided a party line vote in the Judiciary Committee. It is my hope that this full body will demonstrate more wisdom, less partisan animosity than the Judiciary Committee Democrats demonstrated.

“Both Jim and Don, I am convinced, will make excellent judges on the Fifth Circuit. They are brilliant. They are principled. They are humble men of deep character. They love their families. They are wonderful fathers. And I am confident not only will they faithfully follow the law on the Court of Appeals, but Mr. President, I predict that Jim Ho and Don Willett will become judicial superstars. They will become jurists to which other federal judges across the country look. Their opinions will be cited heavily. They will be followed. In other Courts of Appeals – their careful, meticulous analysis, their fidelity to law, will be held up as exemplars for judges across the country to follow. 

“That is a great accomplishment for the federal judiciary. A great accomplishment for the United States Senate. And a great week for the state of Texas. I yield the floor.”

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