Republican presidential candidate Mick Huckabee insisted on Sunday that the president of the United States would not have to follow a ruling that struck down bans on same-sex marriage because the Supreme Court was not the "Supreme Being."
"You seemed to indicate that as president, you wouldn't necessarily obey court rulings, even the Supreme Court," Fox News host Chris Wallace pointed out during an interview on Sunday. "We have operated under the principle of judicial review since the Marbury v. Madison case in 1803."
According to the GOP candidate, the United States would be operating under "judicial supremacy" instead of judicial review if bans on same-sex marriage were to be struck down.
"Presidents have understood that the Supreme Court cannot make a law, they cannot make it, the legislature has to make it, the executive branch has to sign it and enforce it," Huckabee said. "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," he added. "And for God's sake, it's not the Supreme Being."
Huckabee wondered what would happen if the Supreme Court ruled on "who was going to be the next president."
"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," he opined. "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."