Sen. Ted Cruz is warning about the dangers of a left-wing effort to target Supreme Court justices, the Conservative Brief reported. The Texas Republican said an opinion piece calling for "shaming" federal judges who disagree with Democrats "is just the latest attempt by the Left to intimidate its enemies and politicize the Court."
Cruz made this prediction in an op-ed he penned for National Review. "The Founding Fathers understood the important role that courts play as a check on the elected branches of government," Cruz wrote.
"To be effective, the courts need to be insulated so judges can impartially interpret the law. That’s why federal judges aren’t elected," he added.
"This, however, hasn’t stopped leading Democrats and activists from making threats against the federal judiciary," Cruz pointed out. He went on to admonish Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer who "threatened sitting Supreme Court justices by name" in a dangerous game.
"I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions," the New York Democrat said. Following the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, many on the left similarly decided to harangue justices to get them to change their final opinion, Cruz pointed out.
"The Washington Post op-ed acknowledges that campaigns to shame judges could lead to violence. Make no mistake: This threat of violence is very real," Cruz warned.
"Organized protest groups targeted Supreme Court justices at their homes in an attempt to pressure them into changing their ruling in the Dobbs case before it was released but after the draft opinion had been leaked." Indeed, a man with a knife showed up at the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh following these calls for judge intimidation.
Although it's a federal crime to attempt to influence a ruling by harassing a judge, President Joe Biden's administration has yet to prosecute under the statute. "The Biden DOJ’s unwillingness to punish those who violated the law in a targeted harassment campaign of Supreme Court justices will only encourage those on the left who support political violence to achieve their goals," Cruz predicted.
"Is that really the system of justice we want to have? Rulings based not on the facts or the law, but on who can terrorize the families of judges more? That’s what you’d expect in a banana republic, not in America," Cruz said.
"We also shouldn’t forget that the corporate media and the Left used to celebrate activism in the courts when it advanced their political objectives," Cruze continued. "When the courts used to invent rights from whole cloth, with Roe v. Wade being one of the most notorious examples, the Left cheered," he said.
The Roe decision was largely recognized as a poorly decided case that twisted the law and language to confer the right to abortion. The Dobbs majority opinion contended there was "no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment" in the Constitution.
It would seem that the activist judges were responsible for the original ruling based on the agenda and not the law. "But now that the courts are holding policy-makers to the text of the Constitution and its limited grant of federal power, the Left is furious and out for blood," Cruz pointed out.
"Our democracy cannot function without an independent judiciary. All of us should agree that harassing or intimidating judicial officers is not acceptable. Without an independent judiciary, there is no justice at all," Cruz concluded.
It's dangerous and wrong to target unelected judges because their rulings don't align with one party's agenda. The fact that those on the left call for it and feel emboldened to do so sets the stage for violence -- and Cruz is right to sound the alarm.
