Chad’s Morning Brief: Legal Scholars Say Charges Against Rick Perry Should be Dropped, The Influence of Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for November 10, 2014.
Charges Should be Dropped
According to the Austin American Statesman, legal scholars who identify as both Republican and Democrat say the charges against Texas Governor Rick Perry should be dismissed.
Some of the nation’s best-known lawyers and legal scholars will file a request in state district court Monday for a judge to dismiss felony charges against Gov. Rick Perry, saying the indictment against him is unconstitutional and criminalizes “ordinary political acts.”
The 14 participants include well-known Republicans — former U.S. Solicitors General Ken Starr and Ted Olson, for example — but also Democrats such as former state Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzalez.
They also include law school professors from Harvard University, the University of California at Los Angeles and Stanford University. Additionally, Jeff Blackburn, founder and chief counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas, which has worked to free defendants who were wrongly convicted, is joining in the effort, according to the request, obtained Sunday by the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, we all believe in the Constitution, we all believe in freedom of speech, and we all believe that this prosecution is profoundly mistaken and must be stopped — right now,” said James Ho, a former Texas solicitor general who is coordinating the effort with Dallas attorney Prerak Shah and California lawyer Eugene Volokh.
Special prosecutor Michael McCrum, who is handling the case against Perry, did not return calls Sunday.
Senior District Judge Bert Richardson, a San Antonio Republican recently elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and who is presiding over the case, must decide how much consideration to give the brief, if any.
A Travis County grand jury in August indicted Perry on charges of abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. The indictment resulted from his threat last year to Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign after her April 2013 drunken driving conviction or lose $7.5 million in funding to the state’s Public Integrity Unit housed in her office.
Lehmberg refused to step down, and Perry carried out the threat by using his line-item veto authority in the state budget.
Immediately after Perry’s indictment, a number of legal experts denounced the charges, including former Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, and Perry has used that to his public relations advantage. Dershowitz is part of the group asking Richardson to dismiss the case.
These charges are purely political and should be dropped. Eventually either they will be or Perry will defeat the witch-hunt.
The Influence of Senators Cornyn and Cruz
The two Senators from Texas have expanded their influence in D.C., but as the Dallas Morning News reports, their roles are very different.
John Cornyn is the even-keeled insider. Ted Cruz is the brash, ambitious bomb-thrower.
The GOP takeover of the Senate last week puts the two Texas Republicans in a white-hot spotlight — and potentially a collision course.
As deputy majority leader, Cornyn’s main task will be to keep the party unified behind an agenda and strategy set by the incoming majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Cruz, by contrast, wouldn’t even pledge to support McConnell for the leadership post, before or after Tuesday night’s sweeping victory.
“Ted’s going to be a leader. He’s not just going to be an agitator,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom coalition and a longtime Cruz friend. “But sometimes to become a leader, you’ve got to rattle the cage.”
The friction Cruz has caused in the Senate has been so overt, McConnell made light of it the day after the elections. Speaking in Louisville, Ky., he mentioned four people who’d called with congratulations. Apart from House Speaker John Boehner, it sounded like a list of adversaries, including a chastened president, a deposed majority leader, and an unruly backbencher.
“I got a call from the president. Also Senator [Harry] Reid, and the speaker, and Ted Cruz, too. I thought you’d be interested,” McConnell told reporters, drawing chuckles. “All of them have the view that we ought to see what areas of agreement there are and see if we can make some progress for the country.”
Cruz has made efforts in recent months to ingratiate himself with colleagues he irritated in the first 18 months of his tenure. He stumped for Senate nominees in key races in Iowa, Georgia and Kansas, all of whom won. He made a long trip last weekend to Alaska to stump for Republican Dan Sullivan, who has a healthy lead with absentee ballots still being counted.
Cruz also donated generously to the party’s Senate campaign arm. And he steered clear of states where his presence might inflame Democrats more than it would help fellow Republicans.
Still, he could pose some of the biggest headaches in coming months for McConnell and Cornyn.
Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who held the No. 4 spot in GOP leadership for a time, sees a big set of challenges for Cornyn. Cruz’s role in the Senate could require attention, along with corporate tax changes, energy issues and other legislative priorities.
“If we’re going to be productive and keep the trust of the American people, we need to be an effective team, and that’s going to be Senator Cornyn’s responsibility,” she said.
As for Cruz, who won the seat she gave up in 2012, Hutchison said: “He’s going to set his own course. … What he’s done so far has been what he said he would do. I hope that Senator Cruz will work with Senator Cornyn. When your senators are divided, it really lessens the clout that your state has than when they’re united.”
Cornyn and Cruz are surely the highest wattage Senate duo from Texas since Phil Gramm and Lloyd Bentsen, or maybe even Sam Houston and Thomas Rusk.
Both are lawyers, deeply conservative with agendas that largely overlap. Stylistically, they are opposites.
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