Sen. Cruz: Anyone Who Cares about Rule of Law Should Oppose Barron’s Nomination

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today spoke on the Senate floor in opposition to the nomination of David Barron to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

“Anyone who cares about property rights should be dismayed by this nomination and should vote against it if you don't want to see overly aggressive jurisprudence that allows the government to take your private property,” Sen. Cruz said. “Anyone concerned about free speech should be concerned about this nomination... Anyone that cares about local control and federalism and the ability of local school boards and legislatures to make policy decisions should be concerned... Anyone concerned about liberty and the rule of law should be deeply concerned about a judicial nominee who embraces courts as a tool of power and the President disregarding the law. I urge my colleagues to oppose this nomination.”

David Barron praised the Kelo v. City of New London case, which allows a city government to confiscate the property of a private citizen and use for purposes of “economic development.” He has argued that courts have primacy over state legislatures, and he believes that the Court should be used as a platform to reinvent the meaning of the Constitution. For example, he wrote in the Fordham Law Review, “Any justice who has anything like a substantive constitutional vision should also be expected to have some such conception of the proper vertical allocation of powers and one that will promote rather than undermine that vision.”

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