GOP undercard debate: Rick Santorum says same-sex marriage is no more "settled law" than Dred Scott and Congress can kill it

He vowed to use Congress' "coequal power" to countermand Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage

Published August 6, 2015 10:48PM (EDT)

Rick Santorum                     (AP/Charlie Neibergall)
Rick Santorum (AP/Charlie Neibergall)

In the closing minutes of the undercard debate, moderator Bill Hemmer asked Rick Santorum whether same-sex marriage is now "settled law" in the same way that Roe v. Wade is "settled law," and to no one's surprise, he replied that "it is not."

"It's no more settled law than Dred Scott was settled law to Abraham Lincoln, who in his first inaugural address said that it won't stand, and they went ahead and passed laws in direct contravention to a rogue Supreme Court," he said.

"This is a rogue Supreme Court decision," Santorum continued. "Just as Justice Roberts said, there is no constitutional basis for the Supreme Court's decision."

"I know something about this -- one of the times the Supreme Court spoke that I thought they were acting outside of their authority was in a partial abortion case," he said, making reference to the current Planned Parenthood hoax. "You know these tapes, what they're showing, are partial birth abortions. The Supreme Court found a bill that I was the author of unconstitutional, and what did I do?"

"I didn't say, 'Well, we lost, it's the law of the land.' We worked together, the House and Senate, and we passed a bill that said, 'Supreme Court, you're wrong! We're a coequal branch of government and we have every right to stand up and say what is constitutional."


By Scott Eric Kaufman

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Abortions Elections 2016 Planned Parenthood Rick Santorum Supreme Court