A civics class is all the legal training one needs to grasp a basic truth about the national push for same-sex marriages — which is that a judge cannot simply put them into effect because, under the Constitution, a legislature has to pass an enabling law, former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"There is no such thing as judicial supremacy. The Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being," likely Republican presidential candidate Huckabee told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner, continuing a discussion he started on Tuesday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on
DIRECTV Ch. 349 and
DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system –
Click Here Now
Huckabee disputed a summary of his remarks to Hewitt published on Wednesday by the Huffington Post under the headline, "
Mike Huckabee: States Can Ignore Supreme Court on Gay Marriage."
But he said that what states do not have to do is start issuing same-sex marriage licenses as soon as a ruling comes down. That takes an affirmative, legislative act, passed by lawmakers and signed by a governor, he said.
The high court announced on Friday that it will decide whether all same-sex couples in the United States have a Constitutional right to marry — a decision that will either uphold or overturn gay marriage bans retained by 14 states.
The author of "
God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" told "MidPoint" that what's missing from the debate is acknowledgement that a court ruling would not, in and of itself, compel states and localities to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
"The court, while it can interpret a law, it can't make one," said Huckabee,
who has argued passionately on behalf of allowing states to decide the issue and has said that a GOP that doesn't join him in the fight is "no place for me."
Huckabee said he doesn't know why such a core constitutional principle escapes "a lot of people, including lawyers and members of Congress, including the president — who supposedly taught constitutional law.
"I wonder, 'Great, you went to law school; did you take ninth-grade civics?' " said Huckabee. "This is so fundamental that any cursory reading of the Constitution would lead one to believe that the one branch of government cannot usurp the other two."
The states' rights argument has support from other cultural conservatives who may also join the 2016 race, including Sen. Marco Rubio, whose home state of
Florida began issuing same-sex marriage licenses this month.
Huckabee said that as many have 34 states have in one way or another affirmed "the traditional definition of marriage," meaning that "if a judge says you can't have that definition, in order to issue a marriage license, you still have to go through that process — the constitutional process of legislation, [and] signature by the governor. Then you have same-sex marriage."
He disagreed that "anarchy" would follow if states took the admittedly slower legislative approach in the wake of a pro gay-marriage ruling by the Supreme Court.
"My point is that when you have a court that issues a ruling, it doesn't mean that the very next day it is enforced," he said.
"The legislature has to create enabling legislation: That's what people are missing," he said.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.