During an appearance on Fox News
Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee argued
that a president could ignore a Supreme Court ruling, claiming that
the court cannot make laws.
In recent months, and again in
announcing his presidential bid, Huckabee warned that the Supreme
Court cannot “overrule God” when it comes to “the sanctity of
marriage.”
The high court is expected to rule next
month on a case challenging state bans on gay marriage in Ohio,
Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky. A ruling striking down the bans as
unconstitutional would bring nationwide marriage equality.
“Presidents have understood that the
Supreme Court cannot make laws,” Huckabee
said. “They cannot make it. The legislature has to make it.
The executive branch has to sign it and enforce it. And the notion
that the Supreme Court comes up with the ruling and that
automatically subjects the two other branches to following it defies
everything there is about the three equal branches of government.”
“The Supreme Court is not the supreme
branch. And for God's sake, it's not the supreme being.”
“[Is it] up in the air as to whether
you're going to obey the Supreme Court?” host Chris Wallace asked.
“Let's say that the president decided, 'I don't like the Supreme
Court's ruling on that.' Let's say Nixon had said, for instance in
Watergate, 'I don't want to turn over the tapes and the court can't
make them.'”
“The president still has to follow
whatever the law is. Does Congress have a law that tells him what
he's going to do? In that case, Congress was ready to impeach Nixon
and he ultimately resigned,” Huckabee responded.
“What if the Supreme Court ruled that
they were going to make the decision as to who was going to be the
next president and save the taxpayers and the voters from all the
expense and trouble of voting, and they'll just pick a president.
Well, we would say, 'Well, they can't do that.' Why can't they do
it? They can't do it because it's not in the law. We are sworn to
uphold the Constitution and the law. And it has to be consistent and
agreed upon with three branches of government, one can't overrule the
other two,” Huckabee added.
(Related: Mike
Huckabee defends Josh Duggar; Scolds “Blood-Thirsty Media.”)