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Ted Cruz to States: Impose Your Own Iran Sanctions

Cruz, seen through red balloons, said states should explore their own sanctions against Iran. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Cruz, seen through red balloons, said states should explore their own sanctions against Iran. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

RollCall-On-the-Road-Logo(150x150) PELHAM, Ala. — Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday that doing everything possible to thwart the Iran deal should include states exploring imposing their own sanctions.  

The Republican presidential candidate from Texas was asked at a raucous town hall-style forum here about the prospects of states taking action to impose sanctions on the money the Obama administration has agreed to release as part of the deal regarding the country’s nuclear development.  

“I think that states should act and lead to do exactly that,” Cruz said.
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Cruz conceded it could be a tough legal question with some Supreme Court precedent in opposition, but he did highlight his success while solicitor general of Texas in arguing against the George W. Bush administration in Medellin v. Texas.  

In that case, Bush had applied an order from the International Criminal Court to state judicial proceedings, like those in Texas. That was upended by the Court in a 6-3 decision.  

“The court further concluded that no president, Republican or Democrat, has the constitutional authority to give up U.S. sovereignty,” Cruz said. “So, I think states ought to go down that road. It’ll be a fight. It’s not an open and shut legal argument, but we ought to do everything we can to resist this … Iranian deal.”  

Cruz attracted a crowd that was conservatively estimated at 750 at the forum held in a banquet hall south of Birmingham Sunday afternoon. Alabama is the third state on his weeklong swing through the American South that kicked off August 7, the day after the first GOP presidential debate.


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