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Ted Cruz cast doubt on Donald Trump's judgment in picking a Supreme Court justice. | AP Photo Cruz skewers Trump’s sister in Supreme Court debate

AIKEN, S.C. —Ted Cruz on Monday pledged to make the presidential election a “referendum” on the U.S. Supreme Court, ramping up efforts to make that issue one more increasingly personal point of contention with Donald Trump, his biggest rival here ahead of the South Carolina primary.

“The one person Donald has pointed to as a potential Supreme Court nominee is his sister,” Cruz told reporters here Monday, though Trump opened Saturday night’s debate by name-checking federal judges Bill Pryor and Diane Sykes. “Now, it’s good to stand with your sister. But Donald’s sister was a Bill Clinton-appointed federal appellate judge who’s a radical pro-abortion extremist.”

He continued: “Donald said his extreme, abortion-supporting sister would make a terrific Supreme Court Justice. If the people of South Carolina care about their constitutional rights, we’re one justice away from the Supreme Court writing the Second Amendment out of the Bill of Rights.”

Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Trump said Sunday that he was kidding when he last year mentioned her as a possible Supreme Court Justice.

But that didn’t keep Cruz from casting doubts on Trump’s judgment when it comes to picking Supreme Court justices, both when speaking to reporters and during a Monday rally during Cruz’s first full day of campaign events following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“A candidate who has spent 60 years of his life being very, very pro-choice and defending partial-birth abortion is not the candidate you can trust to appoint principled constitutionalists,” Cruz said, taking aim at Trump as part of his broader efforts to paint Trump as a longtime liberal out-of-step with the deeply conservative and religious electorate here.

Cruz, a former Supreme Court clerk and the ex-solicitor general of Texas, went on during the rally to tick through a long list of conservative priorities, from restricting abortion to protecting the Second Amendment and religious liberty, that, he said, are in jeopardy if the wrong justices are appointed to the Court.

In Cruz’s scenario, the country is “just one justice away” from abortion “on demand,” from the restriction of gun rights and from “our religious liberties being stripped away.”

“Want to know what the stakes in this election are about?” Cruz said. “They’re about electing a president who will ensure every justice he puts on the court is a principled constitutionalist.”

