Adamant Obamacare opponent Ted Cruz admitted it was a mistake to support Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ confirmation to the high court a decade ago.
“That was a mistake and I regret that,” he said during the Republican primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California Wednesday night.
Roberts has become a lightning rod for conservative criticism after he voted to uphold Obamacare in two separate court challenges.
The Texas senator who once conducted a 21-hour filibuster on Obamacare is a former Supreme Court clerk who said Roberts is an “amazingly talented lawyer.” But he said former President George W. Bush made an easy choice of choosing Roberts instead of a more conservative justice.
“John Roberts should be a quick confirm,” Cruz wrote in the National Review back in 2005. “At the outset, Judge Roberts is brilliant. A summa cum laude Harvard graduate, Roberts began by clerking for two giants of the bench, Judge Henry Friendly, and Chief Justice Rehnquist.”
Cruz, who is number three in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, took criticism, coincidentally, from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He said Roberts has made “some really good decisions” but questioned whether Roberts had an extensive record of upholding the Constitution.
“We need to make sure that we have justices with a proven record with respect to upholding the Constitution,” Bush said.
