In his presidential campaign announcement speech, Ted Cruz said, “It is a time for truth.” And on TV the day after his announcement he said, “I’ll tell the truth…” and he said, “My plan is to speak the truth…” (CBS News, 3/24/15)

If you are running for president as a truth teller (the need for such a claim remarkable in itself) you had better be one.      

The biography on Cruz’s U.S. Senate web site contains this declaration: “The National Law Journal has called Ted ‘a key voice’ to whom ‘the [U.S. Supreme Court] Justices listen.’”

That claim is echoed across the Internet.

But, has anyone taken the time to read the National Law Journal article? Apparently not.

The title of the April 7, 2008 article is “Justices listen to a key voice.” The subtitle is: “State solicitors general get more time in high court.”

The “key voice” is state solicitors general, of which Cruz was one. Cruz is featured in the article, but he is not the only state solicitor general named or quoted.

The theme of the article is the remarkable growth in states of the office of solicitor general, representing “one of the most significant developments in appellate practices in the high court, as well as in other federal and state courts.”

So, did the National Law Journal single out Ted Cruz as “a key voice” to whom “the [U.S. Supreme Court] Justices listen”? No.

Is that a quibble, unworthy of mention? If the candidate was Hillary Clinton, the answer would be yes, because there are so many bigger lies. But for the self-styled truth teller, the exaggeration and creative use of brackets has the smell of a huckster.