JOHN CORNYN

'John Cornyn III' (born February 2 1952) is the junior United States Senator from Texas. He is a Republican and was elected to his first term in November 2002, defeating Democrat Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas, Texas, and Libertarian Scott Jameson of Plano, Texas.
Cornyn was born in Houston, Texas to Atholene Gale Danley and John Cornyn II.^[1] He graduated from Trinity University in 1973, where he majored in journalism and was a member of the local fraternity Chi Delta Tau.^[2][3][4] He earned a J.D. from St. Mary's University School of Law in 1977, and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.^[5][6]
After serving six years as a District Court Judge in San Antonio, Texas, Cornyn was elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1990 and re-elected in 1996. Cornyn resigned from the Texas Supreme Court in 1997 to run for the office of attorney general of Texas. When elected, he became the first Republican to win the position since Reconstruction. He left that post for his successful Senate run in 2002.
In 2005, Cornyn's name was mentioned among possibilities to replace Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O'Connor or William Rehnquist.^[7]
Cornyn and his wife Sandy have two daughters, Danley and Haley.

Contents

Political views

Senate career

Court violence controversy

Electoral history

Footnotes

External links

Political views

Cornyn was ranked by ''National Journal'' as the third-most conservative United States Senator in their March 2007 rankings.^[8]
In the 2004 debate surrounding the Federal Marriage Amendment, Cornyn released an advance copy of a speech he was to give at the Heritage Foundation. In the speech, he wrote, "It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right ... [N]ow you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife." He removed the reference to the box turtle in the actual speech, but the ''Washington Post'' ran the quote. ''The Daily Show'' lampooned the quote, while a gay rights group started a news blog called ''Box Turtle Bulletin''.
^[9]
In September 2005, Cornyn sponsored a bill that would allow law enforcement to force anyone arrested or detained to provide samples of their DNA, which would be recorded in a central database.^[10]
On January 24 2007, Cornyn was one of 28 Senators who voted to repeal the minimum wage.^[11] On February 1, 2007, Cornyn voted to raise the federal minimum wage.^[12]

Senate career

Cornyn, widely considered to be a very close Senate ally of President George W. Bush, sits on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Immigration. He previously served as chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights.
He also serves on the Armed Services Committee, the Budget Committee and is the Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics. In 2004, Cornyn co-founded ^[13] and became the co-chairman of the U.S. Senate India Caucus^[14] with the encouragement and aid of the USINPAC Political Action Committee.^[15]
Cornyn was selected by his colleagues in December 2006 to be a member of the five-person Republican Senate leadership team as Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.
While in the Senate, Cornyn has received various awards and recognitions, including the 2005 Border Texan of the Year Award; the National Child Support Enforcement Association’s Children’s Champion Award; the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Friend of Farm Bureau Award; the Texas Association of Business’s (TAB) Fighter for Free Enterprise Award; the National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) Guardian of Small Business Award; the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders’s (CONLAMIC) Latino Leadership Award; and the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce’s (TAMACC) International Leadership Legislative Award; among others.
On May 18 2007, Cornyn was involved in an altercation with fellow (and Senior) Senator John McCain (R-AZ). "During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, McCain and Sen. John Cornyn got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources — both Democrats and Republicans — who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room. McCain cursed at Cornyn after he told McCain, "Wait a second here. I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."^{[16] [17]}
After the withdrawal of the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, Cornyn was mentioned as a possible replacement nominee.^[7] In September 2005, during the Supreme Court hearings for John G. Roberts Jr., Cornyn's staff passed out bingo cards to reporters, asking them to stamp their card every time a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee used terms such as "far right" or "extremist".^[19]
During Senate hearings on a possible censure of Bush, Cornyn attacked Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, arguing that censuring the President would amount to "aiding our enemies during a time of war".
Cornyn will be up for reelection to the Senate in 2008. As of August 2007, he is considered to be in relatively good position for reelection given Texas' recent history of favoring Republicans in statewide elections — no Democrat has been elected to the Senate from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. However, Democrats gained two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006.
Cornyn has been described as one of "Big Oil's ten favorite members of Congress," as he has received more money from the oil and gas industry than all but six other members of Congress.^[20] During his tenure in in the Senate, Cornyn has scored 0% on the League of Conservation Voter's environmental scorecard, a system of ranking politicians according to their voting record on environmental legislation.^[21]

Court violence controversy

Cornyn has been active in criticizing what he calls "activist judges". Cornyn caused a controversy in the wake of several high-profile violent crimes and death threats against judges when he stated on the floor of the U.S. Senate on April 4, 2005, that "raw political or ideological decisions" by judges cause "great distress" in many people and wondered aloud if this "distress" was the cause of the violence.
:''I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in — engage in violence.''^[22]
Cornyn's opponents argued that this amounted to rationalizing violence against judges if their decisions were unpopular with the public. His remarks came shortly after then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said that "the men responsible [for Terri Schiavo's death] will have to answer to their behavior." Ralph Neas, President of People for the American Way, argued that both comments "are irresponsible and could be seen by some as justifying inexcusable conduct against our courts."^[23]
Cornyn argued that his remarks were taken out of context,^[24] that as a former judge himself, he was "outraged" by recent acts of violence against judges. The following day on the Senate floor he said:
:''[T]here is no possible justification for courthouse violence ... I am not aware of any evidence whatsoever linking recent acts of courthouse violence to the various controversial rulings that have captured the Nation's attention in recent years.''
:''My point was, and is, simply this: We should all be concerned that the judiciary is losing respect that it needs to serve the interests of the American people well. We should all want judges who interpret the law fairly — not impose their own personal views on the Nation. We should all want to fix our broken judicial confirmation process. And we should all be disturbed by overheated rhetoric about the judiciary from both sides of the aisle. I regret that my remarks have been taken out of context to create a wrong impression about my position, and possibly be construed to contribute to the problem rather than to a solution. Our judiciary must not be politicized. Rhetoric about the judiciary and about judicial nominees must be toned down. Our broken judicial confirmation process must be fixed once and for all.''^[25]
On March 9 2006, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave a speech in which she said of Cornyn: "It doesn't help when a high-profile Senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the Senator disagrees with."^[26]

Electoral history

Footnotes

1. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/cornyn.htm
2. http://www.trinity.edu/departments/public_relations/news_releases/0422commencement.htm
3. http://cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=page&pid=5&lid=1
4. http://www.trinity.edu/student_org/chidelts/Alumni/AlumniAssociationFoundation/alumfound.html
5. http://www.stmarytx.edu/news/index.php?section=archives&id=387
6. http://www.law.virginia.edu/home2002/html/alumni/alumninews_02.htm
7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070100756.html
8. http://politicalarithmetik.blogspot.com/2007/03/national-journal-2006.html
9. http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/About/AboutUs.htm
10. Washington Post Article, 9/23/05
11. Vote Roll Call
12. Vote Roll Call
13. [http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040429-070356-1811r.htm
14. http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Library/Archives/IndiaCaucus-MissionStatement.htm
15. http://www.usinpac.com
16. McCain, Cornyn Engage in Heated Exchange ''Washington Post'' Capital Exchange. May 18, 2007 Retrieved June 21, 2007
17. John McCain's Indecent Double Standard Paul Levinson blog. May 22, 2007 Retrieved June 21, 2007
18. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070100756.html
19. http://www.dot-bingo.com/20050918/bingo-game-introduced-to-supreme-court-nomination-hearing_2175_oeaehr.php
20. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/BigOils10FavoriteMembersOfCongress.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0
21. www.lcv.org/images/client/ pdfs/LCV_2006_Scorecard_final.pdf
22. http://cornyn.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=236007
23. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26236-2005Apr4.html
24. http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/05_04_03_corner-archive.asp#060012
25. http://cornyn.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=236040
26. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5255712

External links

★ United States Senator John Cornyn 'Senate website'

★

★ Federal Election Commission — John Cornyn campaign finance reports and data

★ New York Times — John Cornyn News collected news and commentary

★ On the Issues — John Cornyn issue positions and quotes

★ OpenSecrets.org — John Cornyn campaign contributions

★
★ 2004 PAC contributions to John Cornyn

★ Project Vote Smart — Senator John Cornyn (TX) profile

★ SourceWatch Congresspedia — John Cornyn profile

★ Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: John Cornyn voting record

★ 2008 Texas Senate Race at 2008RaceTracker.com
'Articles'

★ Courthouse violence remarks

★ Retraction/clarification of courthouse violence remarks

★ Citizens for Ethics FOIA Request

★ Courts are to blame for war on Christmas see also War on Christmas

★ The Texas Blue — John Cornyn — Vulnerable in '08?