Jeb Bush, pointing to the Supreme Court oral arguments on same-sex marriage this week, repeated the false claim by Justice Scalia that if marriage equality becomes the law of the land, pastors will be forced to marry same-sex couples. He also made clear he supports discrimination against LGBT people by people of faith.
On Tuesday at the Supreme Court, despite all evidence to the contrary – including the First Amendment – Justice Antonin Scalia insisted that if the court finds a right for same-sex couples to marry, pastor, priests, ministers, and other clergy will be forced under law to marry same-sex couples.
The idea is preposterous on its face, as attorney for the same-sex couples, Mary Bonauto elegantly noted.Â
“Your Honor, of course the Constitution will continue to apply, and right to this day, no clergy is forced to marry any couple that they don’t want to marry,” reminded the 79-year old jurist. “We have those protections.”
On Thursday at a forum hosted by the National Review, likely 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush fear-mongered off Scalia’s false claim, responding to a question on religious freedom.Â
LOOK:Â Jeb Bush Announces He’s A Fan Of White Nationalist Author’s Books
National Review editor Rich Lowry brought up the battle and firestorm created by Indiana Republican governor Mike Pence, when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law last month.Â
Bush had actually been among the first to defend Pence’s signing of the discriminatory law – saying Americans just didn’t know “the facts” about the bill – and was embarrassingly forced to flip-flop when Pence, under fire, called for a bill stating the RFRA could not be used as a tool to discriminate.
“You seemed to suggest,” Lowry said, that the Indiana law “needed to be fixed. What was wrong with it?,” he asked.
Bush denied the suggestion.
“No, I didn’t say that,” Bush insisted, although he essentially did. “I supported Pence. I think he needed to create clarity the law was not an attempt to discriminate against people, it was an effort to provide some space for people to act on their religious conscience.”
Bush then brought up Scalia’s remarks at the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
“I read some of the transcript, and the solicitor general in defense of the government’s position, when, I guess it was Scalia or someone asked about this question of ‘Well, does that mean that the church or other religious institutions are discriminating if they don’t want to participate?'” Bush offered. “And he said, ‘That’s not what’s in front of you today.’ Now maybe I’m misinterpreting that remark, but my interpretation of that was, ‘Well, that might be in front of you tomorrow.’ And that’s where I think we need to focus.”
As Chris Johnson at the Washington Blade notes, “Bush’s account of the exchange is faulty. Scalia indeed expressed concerns during oral arguments that ministers may be forced to conduct same-sex weddings, but the attorney before the bench at the time was Mary Bonauto, civil rights director for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, who gave assurance no clergy would be forced to participate in a same-sex wedding.”
Bush then said, “we need to get to a place where government’s not going to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, and at the same time, make sure there is ample space for people not just to have a religious view, or just to be religious, but to actually act on their religious view.”
In other words, Bush is saying he does not support discrimination against LGBT people by the government, but totally supports discrimination against LGBT people by people of faith.
At that same forum Thursday, Bush announced he’s a fan of books authored by a social scientist the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a “white nationalist,” and whose most famous book has been denounced as “racial pornography.”Â
Here’s Bush talking about Scalia and ministers being forced to perform same-sex marriages:
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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Washington Blade