United Liberty

Ted Cruz (R-TX) has ruffled some feathers since joining the Senate in January. Shortly, after President Obama unveiled his gun control proposals, Cruz dismantled arguments for the Assault Weapons Ban, calling it a “singularly ineffective piece of legislation” and slamming its proponents for misleading Americans.

He was one of three members to vote against John Kerry’s confirmation to serve as Secretary of State and he lead the charge against Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense, though he did cross a line in his questioning.

Cruz, who won the GOP nomination for Senate with heavy grassroots support against an establishment candidate, is seeing the benefits of his cavalier attitude back in the Lone Star State, according to a new poll:

Texas’s Junior Sen. Ted Cruz has been making some waves since joining the U.S. Senate, and it’s earning him solid poll numbers back home, a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey has found.

Early last year, President Barack Obama made recess appointments to add three new members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The Constitution allows a president to make such appointments when the Congress is not in session. And therein lies the problem with the moves made by President Obama — the Senate, which is constitutionally required to confirm appointments, was still in session.

The appointments were challenged in court by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans, who argued that President Obama had acted unconstitutionally. Today, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with McConnell, ruling that President Obama had indeed abused his authority:

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Obama did not have the power to make three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board because the Senate was officially in session - and not in recess - at the time. If the decision stands, it could invalidate hundreds of board decisions made over the past year.

The court said the president could only fill vacancies with the recess appointment procedure if the openings arise when the Senate is in an official recess, which it defined as the once-a-year break between sessions of Congress.

Yesterday, the United States Senate confimed Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court by a vote of 63 to 37 (five Republicans voted for Kagan, one Democrat voted against her):

Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Elena Kagan as the nation’s 112th Supreme Court justice on Saturday, making one-third of the nation’s highest court women for the first time in history.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Roberts telephoned Kagan to offer “warm congratulations” Thursday, shortly after the Senate confirmed her to the post. The 63-37 vote represented a victory for President Obama, who has doubled the number of women ever named to the Supreme Court with his first two nominees.

“I am confident that Elena Kagan will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice,” Obama said in Chicago, where he was traveling. “And I am proud, also, of the history we’re making with her appointment.”

Kagan, 50, was the first woman to serve as U.S. solicitor general and the first woman dean of Harvard Law School. When the court reconvenes on the first Monday in October, Kagan will join Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor as the first trio of women serving together as justices.

We’ve pointed out some of the questions about Kagan. Her views on the free speech, the Second Amendment and the Commerce Clause are questionable, at best. There is little question that she will be another vote for the power of the state.

President Barack Obama has nominated Elena Kagan, currently his solicitor general, to the Supreme Court to fill the opening that will be created by Justice John Paul Stevens when he steps down before the next term:

If confirmed by the Senate, Kagan would become the third woman on the high court. At 50, she is relatively young for the lifetime post and could help shape the high court’s decisions for decades.

The former Harvard Law School dean “is widely regarded as one of the nation’s foremost legal minds,” Obama said. He introduced her in the White House East Room as “my friend.”

Kagan said she was “honored and humbled by this nomination.” She called it “the honor of a lifetime.”

“I look forward to working with the Senate and thank you, Mr. President, for this honor of a lifetime.”

Obama cited what he called Kagan’s “openness to a broad array of viewpoints” and her “fair mindedness.”

In a statement issued before Kagan had completed her remarks, the lawmaker who will preside over her confirmation hearing, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said, “The Senate should confirm Ms. Kagan before” Labor Day.

The good news for President Obama is that she doesn’t have much of a paper trail, therefore she is probably a “safe” pick. However, she has never been a judge, though she was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1999, but a hearing on her confirmation wasn’t scheduled, killing the nomination. Some Republicans are already , but reaction is largely split.

Over at the Volokh Conspriacy, Dave Kopel takes a brief look at prospective Supreme Court nominees and their record on the Second Amendment:

In order from worst to not-all-bad:

Strongly-ideological, highly-committed gun prohibitionist: Harold Koh.

Extensive record of anti-Second Amendment leadership: Secretary of State Clinton, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Gov. Deval Patrick.

Limited but clearly negative record on right to arms: Judge Diane Wood, Judge Merrick Garland.

Mixed record, but with very little positive: Amy Klobuchar.

Mixed record: Cass Sunstein, Janet Napolitano [negatives include the ridiculous Dept. of Homeland Security report conflating political dissent with terrorism; as governor she signed some pro-right to arms legislation, and vetoed other bills], Jennifer Granholm [like Napolitano, a mixed record as governor, including signing some important reforms].