Cruz and Klobuchar face off in key hearing over federal judges’ orders

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sparred during a hearing on federal judges’ nationwide orders against the Trump administration, and the Democrat dismissed her colleague’s claims of “lawfare.”

“Understand this is the second phase of lawfare,” Cruz said during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, “Rule by District Judges II: Exploring Legislative Solutions to the Bipartisan Problem of Universal Injunctions.” 

“Now that their efforts to indict President Trump and stop the voters from re-electing him have failed, they’re going and seeking out individual radical judges,” the Texas Republican claimed. 

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Klobuchar disputed this, telling Cruz the injunctions from federal judges were a result of President Donald Trump “violating the Constitution.”

“Why would Trump-appointed judges …,” the Minnesota Democrat began before being interrupted by Cruz.

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“Why don’t you file them in red districts?” Cruz asked. “Why are the Democrat attorneys general seeking out left-wing, blue swing districts?”

Klobuchar claimed the spike in nationwide injunctions from district judges halting Trump administration actions are not because “these judges are crooked or lunatics or evil.” And she warned that making such claims could instigate threats and violence against them. 

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Cruz criticized Democrats for not sufficiently denouncing threats against conservative Supreme Court justices in recent years. But Klobuchar called that a lie, explaining, “We came together and got more funding for the judges and changed things so that they had more protection.”

While multiple Democrats criticized “judge shopping” during the hearing, they were careful not to get behind Republican bills to end all nationwide injunctions. 

“It’s impossible to separate the hearing from President Trump’s record in office,” said ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

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But ending judge shopping, as Democrats have proposed in the past, wouldn’t completely address the issue, said majority witnesses John N. Matthews, a law professor at Notre Dame Samuel Bray, and Jesse Panuccio, partner at Boies Schiller Flexner. He was previously the acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), chairman of the DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and vice chairman of the DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. 

“I think the incentive for forum shopping is that you think you can get a judge who can be a ruler for the whole nation. So, fix the problem of judges overreaching,” Panuccio.