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'It's Indoctrination': Ted Cruz Spars With Advocacy Group Climate Director About Judicial Training
Forbes Breaking News
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yesterday
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about judges receiving education from advocacy groups.
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00:00
of the Communist Party that's trying to take us down.
00:02
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
00:08
And I would note one of the reasons why the left
00:11
and the Chinese Communist resort to litigation
00:13
is because their ideas are incredibly unpopular
00:17
when the American people vote on them.
00:19
So, for example, in the United States Senate,
00:22
every Senate Democrat voted in favor of the California waiver
00:27
that would effectively ban the internal combustion engine
00:31
in 18 states across the country.
00:34
Every Senate Democrat voted in favor of it, but you know what?
00:37
The citizens aren't voting in favor of it.
00:40
They're not campaigning.
00:41
We don't see our Democrat colleagues saying
00:43
we're going to ban the internal combustion engine.
00:46
Even in bright blue states, even in Vermont and Rhode Island,
00:51
the voters are not saying, take away the car out of my driveway.
00:54
And yet, Democrat officeholders are trying to use government power
00:59
to fight the Democrat wishes of their electorate.
01:03
General Kobach, let's talk about the courts.
01:07
The Climate Judiciary Project, backed by the Environmental Law Institute,
01:11
Energy Foundation, and private donors connected to plaintiff's law firms,
01:15
has trained over 2,000 judges, many in key jurisdictions
01:18
where these climate cases are pending.
01:20
Is it appropriate for sitting judges to receive climate science
01:25
quote-unquote education from advocacy groups
01:30
like the Environmental Law Institute,
01:32
groups that are directly tied to the plaintiffs in active litigation?
01:38
No, Mr. Chairman.
01:39
I do not believe it is any more than it would be appropriate
01:42
for a group of justices to go on an extensive training conference
01:48
and be trained in how to dispute or defend the fossil fuel industry.
01:56
When you have a group of litigants in a pitched legal battle
02:00
in approximately three, well, more than three dozen cases,
02:03
if we're talking about more than just the ones brought by cities and counties,
02:07
the judges are there to be neutral.
02:09
And the worst thing I fear going into any case on any issue
02:13
is if I know that the judge has already dug in
02:16
based on prior things the judge has done or said against me.
02:20
So, you know, I don't think it's appropriate for litigants
02:23
to be training the judges in essentially what their experts
02:27
are going to say in the trial.
02:29
Mr. Chairman, may I respond to this as well?
02:32
No, because we've got limited time,
02:34
if someone else wants to get into it.
02:36
General Kobach, isn't it true that...
02:40
Actually, go ahead, Mr. Arkush.
02:42
Well, I just wanted to say that what Mr. Kobach is saying he opposes
02:46
is exactly what's happening from the defense side as well.
02:49
The Environmental Law Institute has multiple oil companies on its board,
02:54
executives of oil companies, BP and Shell,
02:56
and it has counsel representing them in court
03:01
in important leadership positions.
03:04
So we may be breaking news here.
03:06
Are you on behalf of Public Citizen calling for the Environmental Law Institute
03:09
to stop training judges and indoctrinating judges?
03:13
What I'm saying is it doesn't make any sense to say
03:15
that they're indoctrinating judges as some sort of leftist plot.
03:18
Let's be clear.
03:19
I'm calling for them to stop training judges
03:21
because I think they are indoctrinating them.
03:24
It's interesting you said that,
03:25
but you weren't willing to go to the natural next step of,
03:28
therefore, it should stop.
03:30
I don't know much about it,
03:31
but I do know that BP and Shell are on the board.
03:32
Mr. Arkush,
03:34
if you believed what you were saying,
03:37
you would be willing to call for it to stop.
03:38
You're not,
03:39
and that suggests you know damn well
03:41
what it is that they're training the judges,
03:43
and it's indoctrination,
03:44
and you don't want it to stop
03:45
because you want the judges to be biased
03:47
and rule in favor of these crackpot theories.
03:50
Now, General Kobach,
03:52
I disagree that BP and Shell are on the board of an organization
03:54
that judges against them.
03:55
Mr. Arkush,
03:56
your time is done.
03:57
Isn't it true that these programs,
03:59
often hosted in conjunction
04:01
with the Federal Judicial Center
04:02
or the National Judicial College,
04:05
can obscure ethics disclosure requirements
04:07
because they fall under judicial exemption categories?
04:11
Yeah, I think,
04:13
Chairman,
04:13
you're correct.
04:14
There are definite ethical problems,
04:16
and in addition to the overarching sort of federal model of ethics,
04:21
you also have additional state ethical rules
04:23
that may be violated as well.
04:24
But, you know,
04:25
at the end of the day,
04:27
it's judicial neutrality
04:28
that is the biggest ethical constraint
04:31
on our entire Article III courts and state courts,
04:35
and that is the biggest problem I see going into any case.
04:38
It's also been reported
04:39
that the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court
04:42
participated in these sessions
04:44
at the same time that his court
04:46
was reviewing one of these climate lawsuits.
04:48
So active litigation
04:50
and yet happily being indoctrinated
04:53
by interested parties
04:54
in an ex-parte setting
04:56
where the opposing counsel
04:57
had no opportunity
04:58
to refute the indoctrination.
05:01
Mr. Walter,
05:02
the Climate Judiciary Project
05:04
tells judges
05:05
that climate lawsuits
05:06
are a, quote,
05:07
unique opportunity for accountability.
05:08
Would you call that education
05:11
or would you call that
05:12
political indoctrination
05:13
disguised as training?
05:15
Accountability is the standard term
05:18
used by political activists
05:19
to try to say
05:20
we want to hurt those folks
05:22
that we're opposed to.
05:23
Do you believe Congress
05:25
should investigate
05:26
whether these trainings
05:27
are undermining
05:28
the impartiality of the judiciary?
05:30
Absolutely, Senator.
05:32
Senator Whitehouse.
05:33
Well, the funny thing
05:34
about this conversation
05:35
is that time did not begin
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