SCOTUS PLOY: Ted Cruz Leads Right Wing Campaign To Kill End-Of-Year Senate Lame Duck Session

The Hill reports:

Ted Cruz is leading a conservative effort to end any chance of a lame-duck congressional session at the end of the year. Cruz, a freshman senator from Texas running for president, and right-leaning groups see huge dangers in having a session after the November elections, which they think could be used to move legislation backed by President Obama or even to confirm his Supreme Court nominee.

Indeed, business groups disappointed with the glacial pace in Congress this year see the lame duck as virtually the only chance of moving some of their most prized bills, including legislation implementing the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Movement conservative leaders who have worked with Cruz say they’ll be collaborating with him to quash talk of a lame-duck session before it has a chance to gain momentum. Cruz hasn’t voted in the Senate since Feb. 10, but he hasn’t missed much — GOP leaders have shelved most of the controversial items until after the elections.

Conservative leaders are circulating a letter urging Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and McConnell to swear off the prospect of a legislative session in the window between Election Day and the start of a new Congress.

The lead signers were Edwin Meese III, who served as attorney general under former President Ronald Reagan, and Becky Norton Dunlop, a former Reagan adviser and chairwoman of the Conservative Action Project.

The group had collected more than 70 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a person familiar with the effort. Other early signers are Kenneth Blackwell, chairman of Constitutional Congress Inc.; David Bozell, president of ForAmerica; Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center; and T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr., a former Reagan adviser.