Ted Cruz wins campaign law case before Supreme Court
The Texas Republican senator joins 'Hannity' with reaction.
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz celebrated his Supreme Court win Monday, telling Fox News it is a victory for the insurgent outsider seeking to defeat a federal career politician.
In FEC v. Cruz for Senate, the court decided 6-3 in Cruz' favor, striking down a law limiting the amount of money raised by a candidate can be used after an election for the candidate to repay loans he personally made to his campaign.
For his 2018 reelection bid versus then-Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, Cruz lent his campaign $260,000, while FEC law only allowed campaigns to repay $250,000 maximum. The ensuing litigation hinged on the idea such a law "inhibit[ed] candidates from making such loans in the first place," as Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote in the majority opinion.
Cruz' race against the El Paso Democrat was the priciest Senate contest ever, Roberts wrote.
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Ted Cruz
On "Hannity," Cruz said Congress initially enacted the law in question to better ensure incumbency:
"The number one priority for Congress is to prevent anyone from beating them. And so this law limits the ability of a candidate to make a loan to his or her campaign and then pay himself back," he said.
"And the reason that incumbent politicians want to do that is they don't want anyone to challenge them. They don't want some pesky challenger -- let's say some small business owner – to make a loan to put their life savings in, and to knockout the career politician."
"The existing rule benefited incumbent politicians, and it benefited the super rich. And the result of this decision today is it becomes a lot easier for citizens to say, all right, I'm fed up with the direction our country is going and I'm going to go campaign and throw the bums out," Cruz said.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
Cruz also commented on Justice Clarence Thomas condemning the recent leak of a draft opinion in the bench's Mississippi abortion law case.
The Georgia jurist said he worries about the continued erosion and politicization of American institutions, like the court. Cruz maintained the assault therein comes mostly from the hard left, adding it is up to the Biden Justice Department to prosecute activists intimidating Thomas and his fellow conservative jurists.
He and host Sean Hannity added that Thomas' response to press pressure for him to retire was well-said.
"I will absolutely leave the court when I do my job as poorly as you do yours," Thomas told moderator John Yoo.
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