Federal Judge Apologizes for Calling Ted Cruz ‘Not Fit to be President’

A federal judge apologized Wednesday for calling Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz “not fit to be president.”

Judge for the District of Nebraska, Richard G. Kopf operates a blog entitled Hercules and the Umpire. One post was bluntly titled “Senator Ted Cruz is not fit to be President,” and attacked the candidate for his proposal to introduce term limits for Supreme Court justices.

The problem, as The Volokh Conspiracy‘s Orin Kerr pointed out, is that Kopf’s comments likely violated the code of ethics for federal judges. In particular, the Code of Conduct for United States Judges says that “A judge should not… publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for public office.”

Kerr’s arguments swayed the judge. “Specifically, when I wrote that ‘Senator Ted Cruz is not fit to be President’ and when I made related assertions of unfitness for office and the like in reference to Senator Cruz as a candidate for the Presidency, I crossed the line…” Kopf wrote. “Consequently, [I] apologize to you, Senator Cruz and everyone else for my error.”

[Image via screengrab]
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