WASHINGTON -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday compared a Kentucky clerk in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples to objections to slavery, saying she has an obligation to follow a court decision "if it's right."
The Republican candidate for president also resisted comparisons between gay marriage and interracial marriage during an interview Sunday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher, has been a staunch supporter of Rowan County, Ky., Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed without bail last week for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court's June decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which found that state efforts to ban same-sex marriage violate the 14th Amendment's due process and equal protection clauses. Arkansas was among the states where same-sex marriages became legal after the ruling.
Attorneys for Davis officially appealed the ruling to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Sunday. The three-page motion does not include arguments as to why Davis should be released but amends Davis' earlier appeal of the judge's order.
Asked if Davis has the duty to obey a legal order from the court, Huckabee cited the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which declared that slaves were not U.S. citizens and could not sue in federal courts; that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional; and that Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories. The decision, attributed by many as a spark to the Civil War, was overturned by the 13th and 14th constitutional amendments.
"You obey it if it's right. So I go back to my question. Is slavery the law of the land? Should it have been the law of the land because Dred Scott said so? Was that a correct decision? Should the courts have been irrevocably followed on that? Should [Abraham] Lincoln have been put in jail? Because he ignored it," he said.
Huckabee is scheduled to rally with supporters Tuesday outside the Carter County jail in Grayson, Ky., where Davis is being held. The clerk has vowed not to resign and has said her religious beliefs preclude her from issuing the licenses.
Huckabee disagreed with a question from Stephanopoulos comparing disobeying the Obergefell decision to disobeying the court's 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision, which required states to recognize marriages between couples of different races.
Huckabee said the two cases aren't comparable.
"It's a very different equation altogether because this is a redefinition. Marriage is not defined in the federal Constitution at all; it's a matter for the states. And applying the 14th Amendment to the equality of men and women and their relationship in marriage is totally different than redefining marriage," he said.
"I'm not sure I follow your reasoning, sir. This is exactly the same," Stephanopoulos said.
Huckabee turned the conversation to what statute gives Davis authority to issue licenses to same-sex couples if Kentucky law and the state's constitution haven't been changed.
"George, can you cite for me what statute Kim Davis would be required to follow in order to issue a same-sex marriage license in Kentucky when her state specifically says, by 75 percent of the voters, that marriage means one man, one woman?" he said.
Stephanopoulos also asked whether Huckabee would follow President John F. Kennedy's lead in assuring voters that he wouldn't allow his religious convictions to override the nation's interest.
Kennedy, who went on to become the first Catholic president, sought to calm Protestant fears that his actions would be influenced by papal policy, in a September 1960 speech to Baptist ministers.
"But if the time should ever come -- and I do not concede any conflict to be even remotely possible -- when my office would require me to either violate my conscience or violate the national interest, then I would resign the office; and I hope any conscientious public servant would do the same," Kennedy said.
Huckabee said he doesn't envision such a situation happening.
"I can't see any circumstance in which I would be required to violate my conscience and the law," Huckabee said. "And if so, I think maybe there is a point at which you say either 'I'll resign' or 'Put me in jail.'"
Stephanopoulos pushed back, saying, "The federal government now recognizes same-sex marriage for tax purposes. Health, Social Security and death benefits go to same-sex couples. So would you resign rather than carry out those policies?"
Huckabee said those policies aren't codified in law.
He, and Davis, have argued that the Supreme Court doesn't have the ability to make laws and that until Congress acts, states -- or clerks -- can't be forced to issue licenses to gay couples.
Huckabee cited the 2003 Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee case as an example of a legislative body returning to make changes to law once a court has ruled on the constitutionality of an issue.
In the Lake View decision, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled the state's education formula was unconstitutional because it provided too little money and distributed it unfairly. It gave the General Assembly until Jan. 1, 2004, to make what the court called "appropriate" changes.
"They ruled. I read the ruling. I agreed with it. I knew it was right," he said. "But I didn't just sit out at my desk and start writing new checks to school districts. We had to go back to the Legislature, come up with a school funding formula. It was passed. I signed it. And then we ordered the Department of Education to send checks. We are bypassing the process when we have one branch of government acting as if it has authority over the other two."
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Beam of The Associated Press.
Metro on 09/07/2015