Tom DeLay urges Americans to defy the "ten" Supreme Court justices if they rule in favor of same-sex marriage

The former GOP House majority leader said favoring marriage equality results from constitutional ignorance

Published June 16, 2015 2:43PM (EDT)

Tom DeLay      (AP/Carolyn Kaster)
Tom DeLay (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

Former GOP House majority leader Tom DeLay joined right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly on her radio show, so, naturally, the conversation somehow turned to a lamentation over the Supreme Court's anticipated ruling in favor of marriage equality. Citing a recent open letter by conservative activists and politicians urging SCOTUS to uphold state bans on same-sex marriage, Schlafly bemoaned the supposed threat to "traditional" marriage, which DeLay claimed was the result of some sort of constitutional ignorance. He then went on to display some fun ignorance of his own.

"People don’t understand the constitution," DeLay said. "We haven’t taught our children now for three or four generations what the Constitution is, and the separation of powers, and what our Founding Fathers had in mind as this brilliant understanding of how you can limit government and limit the tyranny put on us through people or oligarchies.”

The former Texas lawmaker then went on to say that because of this supposed ignorance, people are largely unaware of the fact that the Supreme Court has no power to enforce its rulings. DeLay claimed that if Americans "stand up" to the justices, marriage equality won't become the law of the land -- he just, um, forgot how many people Americans would be standing up against.

“It's not in their authority to write law by ten unelected, unaccountable people, lawyers," DeLay said. "If they rule against marriage, we will all defy them."

A friendly reminder: There are nine justices on the Supreme Court, despite FDR's best efforts to boost the number. And while most Americans can't name a single one of them, there are still only nine.


By Jenny Kutner

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Marriage Equality Phyllis Schlafly Same-sex Marriage Scotus Supreme Court Tom Delay