Mr. Cruz, the former Texas solicitor general, is recalling the time he argued that a state should not have to follow an order from an international body or the brief he wrote in defense of a Ten Commandments monument on public property, Mr. Cruz’s work before the nation’s highest court during five-plus years as solicitor general has served as the cornerstone of a somewhat unorthodox campaign.
Mr. Cruz worked on so many high-profile cases because he and his former boss, Attorney General Greg Abbott, set out to engage in politically charged issues.
“We ended up year after year arguing some of the biggest cases in the country,” Mr. Cruz said. “There was a degree of serendipity in that, but there was also a concerted effort to seek out and lead conservative fights.”
Mr. Cruz, who has never held elective office, has argued before the Supreme Court nine times, more than any practicing lawyer in Texas or any current member of Congress. Increasingly, arguing before the Supreme Court has become a specialized skill; those with previous experience before the justices are more likely to be called upon to argue before them again, said H. W. Perry, a University of Texas School of Law professor who has studied the court
