Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum praised Rowan County, KY clerk Kim Davis (D) for her “heroic” refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses on Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day.”
Santorum said, “Well, there’s lots of issues surrounding this. And the first one is, why are we putting someone in jail because they have a religious objection –.” When asked if he thought the fact that the clerk’s office was issuing license for same-sex marriage, Santorum responded, “we have a situation where the United States Supreme Court, in my opinion, acted unconstitutionally. And it’s not just mine, it’s also Justice Roberts’ opinion. He said that the court acted without any constitutional support to do this.”
Santorum added, “the obligation of, — I believe of a president, of a Congress when the court acts unconstitutionally, and I believe they have acted unconstitutionally, is to use the power that is inherent in the Constitution that they call checks and balances. When they — when a president acts unconstitutionally, the court can slap down the president. What happens if the Supreme Court acts unconstitutionally? Who has the — who gets the opportunity to challenge them?”
He concluded, after being asked if Davis is the person who gets to challenge the court, “what Kim Davis did was heroic, and she suffered the consequences from it. She was — obviously I think the — putting her in jail was ridiculous, as an extreme position. But you know what? That’s sometimes what it takes for people who stand up and conduct civil disobedience because the law is unjust, to suffer the consequences of that. And so I commend her for actually standing up for her principles. I think it’s really incumbent on the Congress though, and the legislature of Kentucky, to step up — and particularly the Congress, to step up, and check the court, and the president to check the court when it goes beyond its legal authority.”
(h/t The Right Scoop)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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