John Cornyn

American politician and attorney (born 1952)

John Cornyn III is a senior United States senator from Texas, serving since 2002. He has an impressive legal background, having served as a Texas Supreme Court justice and the state’s attorney general. Cornyn has played a key role in shaping legislation and government policy throughout his extensive career in public service.

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About the John Cornyn

John Cornyn IIIis an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the senior United States senator from Texas, a seat he has held since 2002. A member of the Republican Party, he served on the Texas Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997 and as the attorney general of Texas from 1999 to 2002.

Born in Houston, Cornyn is a graduate of Trinity University and St. Mary’s University School of Law and received an LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He was a judge on Texas’s 37th District Court from 1985 to 1991. He was elected an associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court, where he served from 1991 to 1997. While serving on that court, Cornyn played an important role in crafting its decision to uphold the constitutionality of Texas’s anti-sodomy law (later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas).

In 1998, Cornyn was elected Attorney General of Texas, serving one term before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2002. He was reelected in 2008, 2014, and 2020. Cornyn chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2009 to 2013, and served as the Senate majority whip for the 114th and 115th Congresses.

Frequently Asked Questions

John Cornyn III is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the senior United States senator from Texas since 2002. He is a member of the Republican Party.

John Cornyn has held a number of high-profile positions, including serving on the Texas Supreme Court from 1991 to 1997, as the attorney general of Texas from 1999 to 2002, and as a U.S. Senator from Texas since 2002.

John Cornyn was born in Houston, Texas.

While serving on the Texas Supreme Court, John Cornyn played an important role in crafting the court’s decision to uphold the constitutionality of Texas’s anti-sodomy law, which was later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas.

John Cornyn chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2009 to 2013 and served as the Senate majority whip for the 114th and 115th Congresses.

John Cornyn is a graduate of Trinity University and St. Mary’s University School of Law, and he received an LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.

John Cornyn has been re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008, 2014, and 2020.

13 Quotes by John Cornyn

  1. 1.

    I don’t know whether John Roberts has a twin, perhaps a sister or, uh, someone with a Hispanic last name.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  2. 2.

    But last year there were 540,000 people, roughly, detained coming across the border illegally. Forty-five thousand of them came from countries other than Mexico, demonstrating the fact that Mexico itself now is a pathway into the United States for people all around the world, and we don’t know what their intentions are.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  3. 3.

    If there is a nuclear tactic being used here, I submit it is the use of that obstruction where a willful minority blocks a bipartisan majority from voting on the President’s judicial nominees.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  4. 4.

    When it rains, it pours – figuratively and literally.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  5. 5.

    Justices are not politicians. They don’t run on a political platform, and senators should not ask them to do so.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  6. 6.

    The enemy is not Islam, the great world faith, but a perversion of Islam.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  7. 7.

    I don’t know what ‘operational control’ of the border means, but I do understand the English language. And as I understand that phrase, that’s not true. We do not have operational control.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  8. 8.

    But I do think it’s unwise, and it – to build a mosque at the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of a terrorist attack. And I think to me it demonstrates that the – that Washington, the White House, the administration, the President himself seems to be disconnected from the mainstream of America.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  9. 9.

    I am pleased to report that Texas is known for having one of the strongest set of open government laws in our Nation. And ever since that experience, I have long believed that our federal government could use ‘a little Texas sunshine.’

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  10. 10.

    But I think the – what the tea party movement demonstrates, and I think the, the, the enthusiasm that we’re seeing from independents and Republicans, is that if Washington isn’t going to change itself, then we’re going to change Washington. And I think that’s what we’re seeing.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  11. 11.

    The enemy is not just terrorism. It is the threat posed specifically by Islamist terrorism, by Bin Ladin and others who draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within a minority strain of Islam that does not distinguish politics from religion, and distorts both.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  12. 12.

    And if you like 14.4 percent unemployment, if you like the fact that 70 percent of home mortgages in Nevada are underwater, then stay the course. Vote for Harry Reid.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)

  13. 13.

    Senators will do what they think they need to do to represent their constituents.

    John Cornyn

    American politician and attorney (born 1952)