R. Ted Cruz

R. Ted Cruz is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice and leads the firm's U.S. Supreme Court and national Appellate Litigation Practice. He has authored more than 70 U.S. Supreme Court briefs and presented 34 oral arguments, including eight before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has argued more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than any other lawyer in Texas.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Mr. Cruz served as the Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 until May 2008. Mr. Cruz was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas and, when appointed, was the youngest Solicitor General in the United States. As Solicitor General, Mr. Cruz served as the chief appellate lawyer for the State of Texas, leading a team of 15 appellate attorneys in the Office of the Solicitor General and supervising every appeal, civil and criminal, in state and federal court, on behalf of the State, its agencies, and its officials.

In addition, he was the longest-serving senior legal advisor to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and was charged with personally litigating, in the trial courts and the courts of appeals, those cases raising the most significant and challenging legal issues for the state. Described by National Law Journal as "a key voice" whom "the [U.S. Supreme Court] Justices listen to", Mr. Cruz has been named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America, hailed as a "rising star" in the Wall Street Journal, named by Texas Lawyer as an Impact Player of the Year, honored by Harvard Law School as a Traphagan Distinguished Alumnus, and named by National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America. In addition, in 2009 he was named by Chambers USA as one of America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of appellate law, both in Texas and nationally.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Cruz has won a series of landmark national rulings:

++Successfully represented Texas in Medellin v. Texas, which held 6-3 that the World Court cannot bind the U.S. justice system and the President of the United States cannot order the state courts to obey the World Court.

++Successfully defended the constitutionality of the Texas Ten Commandments monument, winning 5-4 in Van Orden v. Perry.

++Authored a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief for all 50 states successfully defending the Pledge of Allegiance, winning 9-0 in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow.

++Served as lead counsel for the state and successfully defended the multiple litigation challenges to the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan in state and federal district courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 5-4 in LULAC v. Perry.

++Authored a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief for 31 states successfully defending the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, winning 5-4 in District of Columbia v. Heller.

++Helped assemble the Bush legal team, devise strategy, and draft pleadings in the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts during the 2000 Florida presidential recounts, winning twice in the U.S. Supreme Court.

For five consecutive years, Mr. Cruz won the Best Brief Award by the National Association of Attorney Generals (NAAG) for U.S. Supreme Court briefs authored in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. In addition, since 2004 he has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law, where he teaches U.S. Supreme Court Litigation. From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Cruz served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where he led policy development and legal strategy as part of the senior executive team for the FTC. Mr. Cruz previously served as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice and as Department of Justice Coordinator for the Bush Transition Team. From June 1999 until December 2000, he served as Domestic Policy Advisor to President George W. Bush on the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, where he had primary responsibility for all legal policy.

Mr. Cruz currently serves on the board of advisors of the Texas Review of Law & Politics and has been elected a member of the American Law Institute, a director and former vice president of the Texas Lyceum, and a member of the Texas Philosophical Society.

Mr. Cruz received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the Harvard Law School in 1995, where he was a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, an executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. At Harvard, he was named a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics.

Mr. Cruz received his A.B., cum laude, from Princeton University in 1992, where he was the U.S. National Speaker of the Year and Team of the Year in college debate and First Place Speaker at the North American Debate Championships. In 1995, he served as a law clerk to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and, in 1996, as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court.