One on One with John Cornyn

America`s First Freedom: Ever since U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his position that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right, some in the media and anti-gun movement have gone into hysterics, saying the right to keep and bear arms isn`t a right of individuals. What`s your take?

Cornyn: Attorney General Ashcroft simply said what we all know to be the truth. Based on writings contemporary with the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the Second Amendment intended for individual citizens to have a fundamental right to keep and bear arms. At the time, citizens needed guns to hunt and protect their families and homes. Today, citizens still need guns for protection, and they can hunt for pleasure. As a gun owner and hunter, I am very pleased with Attorney General Ashcroft`s ruling. I also believe he is doing a very good job tracking down terrorists threatening America.

AFF: As attorney general of Texas, while protecting the rights of honest gun owners, you led efforts to strictly enforce existing laws against armed, violent criminals. How has that worked out?

Cornyn: Texas Exile, based on Project Exile in Richmond, Va., is a crime-control initiative that utilizes existing state and federal gun laws designed to get to the root cause of gun violence--criminals who illegally use and carry weapons. Texas Exile does so without infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens.

In 1999, then-Governor Bush and I unveiled Texas Exile, and prosecutions of criminals illegally possessing firearms have increased dramatically. Texas now leads the country in gun prosecutions, more than New York and California combined. Strict enforcement of current laws is the best way to reduce crime. Passing more laws without enforcing current laws, as occurs in some states, undermines the law and does not make the streets safer.

AFF: President Bush said that if elected to the U.S. Senate, you would be "a reliable ally when it comes to making sure the tax relief that we passed is permanent and real." By contrast, your opponent, Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, called the Bush tax cuts irresponsible. Can you put a sharper point on the distinctions between you and your opponent in that regard?

Cornyn: I am a proud conservative and I worked closely with the President when he was the governor of Texas. He and I are both looking forward to working together again. I believe in the free enterprise system, and that high taxes stifle initiative and economic growth. The money we earn is ours and should not be taxed any more than absolutely necessary. An important first step is to make the 2001 tax cuts permanent and then continue to work for further tax reduction and simplification of the tax code. My opponent disagrees with that philosophy.

AFF: On criminal justice reform, taxes and a variety of issues, President Bush is clearly counting on you to help carry the agenda forward. Yet in your time at the bench, you`ve also earned a reputation for non-political independence and integrity. As Texas attorney general, you said that you`ve "always been an independent thinker and taken what some have said have been hard positions when I thought it was the right thing to do." Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?

Cornyn: I learned about honesty and integrity from my father and mother, both products of small town Texas, part of what we now call the "Greatest Generation." My father taught me to put service before self. He was the living embodiment of that philosophy. He served his country for 31 years as an Air Force officer, including time in a German pow camp and flying supplies to the people of West Berlin during the Soviet blockade.

As a judge and attorney general, I have always tried to do what I thought was right. We have perhaps the nation`s strongest open government laws in Texas--they allow citizens and journalists to have access to virtually all state and local government documents, and they require government entities to conduct business openly and honestly. I believe that "we the people" are in charge of our government, and I`ve vigorously enforced open government laws. That has ruffled a few feathers among state and local officials, but I believe it`s essential for the people to know what their government is doing.

AFF: At the federal level, do you see political partisanship entering into the judiciary too much?

Cornyn: Political partisanship has severely harmed the judicial nomination process. Politics has always been a part of the process, but

I think the level of partisanship escalated dramatically in 1987 when liberal groups launched a full-scale assault on the nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. The nomination process changed dramatically--from reviewing a person`s qualifications for the bench to ideological warfare.

I will support President Bush`s judicial nominees who believe in strict interpretation of the law and oppose legislating from the bench. Senate liberals are now leading the charge against good, honest and highly qualified jurists nominated by the president. I`m especially disturbed by the treatment accorded Priscilla Owen, a former colleague of mine on the Texas Supreme Court, nominated to serve on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She was attacked by the same groups that defeated the Charles Pickering nomination to that same court. Priscilla Owen was twice elected by Texans to serve on the Texas Supreme Court.

My opponent sided with those liberal interest groups and against the elected nominee from Texas.

AFF: In your 13 years as a judge and a Texas Supreme Court justice, you worked to stem the tide of reckless, frivolous lawsuits that turned trial lawyers into billionaires and led to the ridiculous spectacle of cities suing the firearms industry for the costs of violent crime. Yet you`ve also aggressively prosecuted corporations that used scams to defraud consumers. How would you use what you`ve learned to help restore corporate accountability and consumer confidence in to