Adventures in Civics with Mike Huckabee

When Gov. Mike Huckabee referred to President Obama's declaration of a name change for a certain Alaskan peak as proof that Obama doesn't think he has any limits, I was going to just take it for granted. Huh, so a guy running in a GOP Presidential primary disagrees with something the President did with a little backspin of hyperbole, whet else is new? And of course he went out of his way to compare the President to a spoiled child because after all, this is the same jackass who compared Jay-Z and Beyoncé to a pimp and a prostitute, so I think I've got a pretty good feel for where Huckabee is coming from.

When I thought a little more about it though, it seemed rather rich. This is the Mike Huckabee who was going to end abortion by fiat and use the military against health clinics that provide abortion services. I'm going to go ahead and say that sounds an awful lot more like overreach than restoring the name of a mountain. I'm not sure what authority Huckabee thinks he would have to do that--but I'm sure, like Kim Davis, his answer would be "God's authority".

It so happens that Huckabee had a nice chat with Kim Davis recently and provided words of support. Regarding her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples (or straight ones at this point, which is part of her job), he had this to say:

"Kim is asking the perfect question: 'Under what law am I authorized to issue homosexual couples a marriage license?' That simple question is giving many in Congress a civics lesson that they never got in grade school,” Huckabee added. "The Supreme Court cannot and did not make a law. They only made a ruling on a law. Congress makes the laws. Because Congress has made no law allowing for same sex marriage, Kim does not have the constitutional authority to issue a marriage license to homosexual couples. "

Well, what authority did she have to issue licenses to straight couples? It's the same one. The idea of judicial review means that laws can be invalidated that are found to be unconstitutional. So they removed the barrier preventing same sex couples from getting married--marriage being an institution that already exists.

I don't think you can call something a civics lesson if it misses the point entirely.