Tag Archives: Solicitor General

Articles of Interest

Limitless: Ted Cruz Values Freedom

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By Judy B. Lloyd

Ford Racing Aluminum Driveshaft

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz recently visited California and was among the featured guests at the Lincoln Club of Northern California’s spring seminar. He spoke of his vision for America which stands in striking contrast with Barack Obama’s.

Senator Cruz was the youngest Solicitor General in Texas; trained at Ivy League Schools (Princeton and Harvard) on the East Coast. He has authored more than 80 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and argued 43 oral arguments, according to his website.

Senator Cruz introduced his wife Heidi, who worked for Condoleezza Rice when Rice served in the White House as National Security Adviser. Then, Heidi handled Western Hemisphere policy. Now, she is Vice President of Goldman Sachs in Houston, Texas.

When Senator Cruz first met Heidi’s family – missionaries who were vegetarians – he celebrated Christmas dinner with them. When asked how a vegetarian Christmas differs from Christmas in Cuba, Senator Cruz said that it’s mostly the same – except that the entree never arrives.  He talked of the Cuban tradition which includes roasting an entire pig.

It’s stories like these that endear you to Ted Cruz, who, liked any good Texan, is polite, likable and approachable.

Cruz spoke of protests of a speech he gave at U.C. Berkeley right when Facebook began. He talked about Berkeley’s passionate involvement and suggested students stay engaged and make it a better world. Unlike some on the left who criticize Cruz, he feels that people who disagree with him are not stupid or evil. He suggests approaching people with a more friendly debate demeanor –

“Pretend it is your mother. You cannot convince anyone otherwise.”

Unlike most liberals who’d like to stick a fork in the GOP, stating that the party is “done”, Cruz doesn’t think Republicans will give up –

“Just because we got clobbered in 2012 doesn’t mean we’re done”.

Senator Cruz defines the economic pie as ever-changing. It doesn’t stay stagnant with 47 percent dependent on government.  His philosophy, much like other job-creating Republicans is to have a larger economic pie by creating jobs and more taxpayers, enabling more people get a piece of the pie.

He has advice for Republicans who got caught up in the 2012 rhetoric. He believes the party focused too much on acknowledging those who have already succeeded rather than convincing those who want to achieve –

“Rather than saying ‘You built that’ – say – ‘You can build that.’ “

Cruz discussed debt to his young daughters and says that debt has gone from 10 trillion to 16 trillion in the last four years. It clearly troubles him to think that the cost of our bloated government today will be passed on to his kids to pay.

He talks about Obamacare stating that those who will be hurt most by Obamacare are those who may need help the most.  Many of them are of Hispanic origin, living in Texas. He talks of the court cases against Obama, stating that in the end we’ve got to win the argument, because the future of America’s economic health depends

From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/limitless-ted-cruz-values-freedom/

White House Press Office

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 4/1/2013

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By The White House

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:53 P.M. EDT
MR. CARNEY: Hello, everyone. It’s very good to see you. Thanks for taking care of Josh in my absence last week.
Before I take your questions, I want to say a couple of things. One, and perhaps most importantly, I apologize for keeping you here to miss the opening pitches of the Red Sox versus Yankees game and the Marlins at the Nationals here. I, for one, wish I were at the stadium, because it’s going to be a very exciting season I think for Nationals and Red Sox fans, of which I am one.
I’d also like to say something about the fact that this morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced its hearing for our D.C. Circuit Court nominee, Sri Srinivasan. As you know, Sri is the Principal Deputy Solicitor General, but you may not know that Sri was born in India and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, eventually becoming an all-star point guard at Lawrence High School. And, of course, he is still recovering today from the loss by his beloved Kansas Jayhawks over the weekend.
Sri is of course also a highly respected appellate advocate who has spent a distinguished career litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals, both in private practice and on behalf of the United States for both Democratic and Republican administrations. He has argued before the Supreme Court 24 times; drafted briefs and several dozen additional cases; and has also served as lead counsel in numerous cases before the federal and state appellate courts.
As a testament to how highly regarded he is by members of both parties, 12 former officials from the Solicitor General’s office — six of them Democrats, six of them Republicans — all announced their support for Sri today. The signatories of the letter, including Paul Clement, Ted Olson, Ken Starr, and Walter Dellinger, write, “Sri has a first-rate intellect, an open-minded approach to the law, a strong work ethic, and an unimpeachable character. Sri is one of the best appellate lawyers in the country.”
The D.C. Circuit, as you know, is often considered the nation’s second-highest court, but it has twice as many vacancies as any other court of appeals, and its workload has increased by over 20 percent since 2005. Sri’s confirmation will be an important first step to filling this court’s four vacancies, and he will be, when confirmed, the first South Asian circuit court judge in history.
We also urge the Senate to move swiftly to confirm the 15 additional judicial nominees waiting for votes. Of those 15, 13 were approved out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously; not a single Republican dissent. And four would fill judicial emergencies; six are represented by Republican home-state senators who support their nominations.
Now, as I mentioned, the last time I gave an update on our judicial nominees, we have seen …read more
Source: White House Press Office
News, Politics, Government

Press Briefing by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest, 03/27/2013

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By The White House

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

12:39 P.M. EDT

MR. EARNEST: Two quick announcements at the top before we go to your questions. They’re both scheduling announcements, actually. The first is, at 3:00 p.m. today the President will host a swearing-in ceremony for the new director of the United States Secret Service, Julia Pierson. That will be in the Oval Office, and we’ve arranged for a pool to be there to witness it. So that should be pretty good.

The second thing is about tomorrow. Tomorrow, the President will hold an event here at the White House where he will stand with mothers who want Congress to take action on common-sense measures to protect children from gun violence. The event will take place in the East Room. And in addition to the mothers on stage with the President, there will be law enforcement officials, victims of gun violence, and other stakeholders. So that will be tomorrow. I don’t know the exact time, but we’ll have more on that on the guidance tonight. So, yes, here in the East Room in the White House.

With that, Julie, I’ll let you get us started.

Q Thank you. Just a couple things on DOMA. Did the President get any update from the Solicitor General following the oral arguments today? And was there anyone from the White House who was there to witness the arguments, like yesterday?

MR. EARNEST: It is my understanding that the President has been kept apprised of the arguments made at the Supreme Court on these issues, both through reading the coverage of you and your colleagues but also based on briefings that he’s gotten from his legal staff here at the White House.

It’s also my understanding that the White House officials who attended yesterday are the White House officials also attended today. So that was Valerie Jarrett, Kathy Ruemmler, the Counsel of the White House, and Kathleen Hartnett, who’s an associate counsel here at the White House.

Q There seemed to be, in sort of the initial reading of the justices’ questions, a sense that they were also questioning the constitutionality of DOMA. Did the President, in the short period of time that’s passed since it was wrapped up, have any reaction to the proceedings today?

MR. EARNEST: I haven’t heard from him about his reaction to the proceedings today. I know that going into the proceedings that he had full confidence in his team at the Justice Department and others who were responsible for preparing the arguments, and had total confidence in the people who were prepared to walk in there and deliver them. But in terms of his reaction for how it played out, I didn’t get one.

Q We’re seeing a little bit more from the President, at least publicly this week, on immigration reform — the interviews today, the event on Monday. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The White House Press Office

News, Politics, Government

Good For Generic Drugmakers? White House To Argue In Favor Of Preemption

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By Ed Silverman, Contributor

Generic drugmakers may get a boost now that the US Supreme Court has agreed to allow the Solicitor General to argue that federal law preempts personal injury lawsuits claiming design defects from proceeding in state courts. At issue is whether a generic drug maker can be held liable for a design flaw if it failed to withdraw an allegedly harmful medicine from the market. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest