Cornyn: Would love to see more Texans as court nominees

Published 11:18 am Thursday, August 2, 2018

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Thursday that while he admires Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s experience and judicial philosophy, he is troubled that more Texans aren’t considered for the high court.

In a morning conference call with Texas reporters, Cornyn, a Texas Republican who serves on the Judiciary Committee, responded to a Port Arthur News question about the Supreme Court’s composition, which includes mostly Easterners and Ivy League educated lawyers.

“Bluntly, yes,” he responded when asked if the scarcity of high court nominees from Texas troubled him. He said the court “ought to represent different regions” and “different backgrounds in the legal profession.”

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He said Kavanaugh, a federal judge since 2006, meets the standard of experience on the bench and that his judicial philosophy — interpreting the law as written instead of “writing it” from the bench — makes him an attractive nominee.

He described Kavanaugh, who was born in Washington, D.C., reared in Maryland and educated at Yale, as “not a policymaker wearing robes.”

“I, for one, would like to see more people from around the country,” he said.