Ted Cruz

Published on Thursday, June 03, 2010
ARTICLES

Ted Cruz served as the Solicitor General of Texas from January 2003 to May 2008. During that time, he gained recognition as an effective, articulate advocate of America's founding principles and Texas values.

Appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Cruz represented Texas as its chief appellate lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and the state and federal appellate courts. He was the youngest Solicitor General in the nation, the longest serving Solicitor General in Texas, and the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas.

Cruz, 39, has been described by National Review as"a Republican star rising in Texas,"and as"a great Reaganite hope."

The National Law Journal called him as "a key voice" whom "the [U.S. Supreme Court] Justices listen to." He was named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America, hailed as a "rising star" in the Wall Street Journal, and named by the National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America.

Cruz has authored over 80 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and personally argued 37 oral arguments, including eight before the U.S. Supreme Court-the most of any lawyer in Texas.

Under the leadership of Attorney General Greg Abbott, Cruz defended Texas values, winning repeatedly on a national level. During Cruz's service as Solicitor General, Texas achieved an unprecedented series of landmark national victories, including successfully defending:

• U.S. sovereignty against the World Court in Medellin v. Texas.
• TheSecond Amendment right to keep and bear arms;
• The constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument;
• The constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance;
• The constitutionality of Texas Sexually Violent Predator Civil Commitment law; and
• The Texas congressional redistricting plan.

Cruz has received numerous awards and accolades. For five consecutive years, he received the Supreme Court Best Brief Award from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).

As a candidate for Texas Attorney General from January - December 2009, Cruz gained endorsements from virtually every top conservative political leader across Texas and many nationally. He also achieved substantial fundraising success, raising more than $1.3 million from nearly 1,000 donors in over 100 Texas cities and 25 States.

Cruz currently serves as a Partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, the nation's 11th largest law firm, where he leads the firm's U.S. Supreme Court and national Appellate Litigation practice. In addition, he taught U.S. Supreme Court Litigation as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law from 2004-09.

Prior to serving as Solicitor General, Cruz was the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Domestic Policy Advisor on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. In addition, Cruz clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court, the only Hispanic to have clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States.

Cruz has seen first-hand that America's bedrock principle is the pursuit of freedom and opportunity. His father came to Texas from Cuba penniless at age 18, not speaking a word of English. Cruz went on to study at Princeton where, in college debate, he was named the U.S. National Speaker of the Year and the U.S. National Team of the Year (with his partner). He also won the First Place Speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debate Championships.

He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude and served as a Primary Editor of the Harvard Law Review, an Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and a Founding Editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review.

Cruz and his wife Heidi live in Houston, where he grew up, with their two-year-old daughter, Caroline Camille.