Government

Ted Cruz Hates Court Packing. And Irony.

Hunka hunka burnin' lies.

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It’s Friday, and “Fat Wolverine” is trending on Twitter.

After getting a little R&R in Cancun, Ted Cruz is back in DC ready to stick it to the libs. Democrats have suggested that Joe Biden expand the Supreme Court, and Senator Machine Gun Bacon is not here for it.

“You didn’t see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game,” he said in his manliest nasal twang. “You didn’t see us try to pack the court.”

And amazingly lightning failed to strike him on the spot. Although Senator Marsha Blackburn appears to be keeping her distance, just in case a vengeful deity decides to make itself known.

Because of course Republicans rigged the game when they had control of the Senate. They reduced the number of Supreme Court seats to eight for 387 days after inventing the fiction that justices could not possibly be confirmed during the final year of a president’s term. Immediately upon taking back the White House, they nuked the judicial filibuster for the Supreme Court to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch, they then disregarded their own precedent to jam through Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, just two weeks before the election.

When they didn’t hold the White House, Republicans filibustered Obama’s judicial nominees across the board. Then when Trump got elected, they discarded the blue slip procedure for circuit court nominees, whereby a home state senator could block a candidate, and then proceeded to jam through dozens of appellate judges.

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They even reduced time for debate before invoking cloture on whichever thirty- or forty-something with scant experience and no ABA buy-in McConnell wanted to ram through on any given day.

None of which counts as rigging, according to very serious Harvard Law grad Rafael Edward Cruz. Unlike filling judicial vacancies when they occur under Democratic presidents, which is dastardly court packing.

“I believe that there is an activist base that is pressuring the president, that has been pressuring senior Senate Democrats to get judicial nominees on the DC Circuit to protect the regulations coming from this administration,” he thundered back in 2013 when Barack Obama sought to fill vacancies on the DC Circuit. “And I think any effort to pack the court because the administration doesn’t like the outcomes of judges applying the law fairly should be decried.”

Because if there’s one thing the senator cannot abide, it is an activist base.

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As for the Fat Wolverine thing, well, we know Ted Cruz isn’t avoiding the barber because of covid restrictions. Which means that he must be doing the mutton chop mullet thing on purpose. Yikes.

Perhaps his hair stylist is part of the #Resistance. Is this a case of beauticial activism? You be the judge.

Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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