Rick Santorum this morning made several false statements, including claiming the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling is not the law of the land.
Appearing just minutes after Rowan County clerk Kim Davis told reporters this morning she will continue to defy the U.S. Supreme Court but will not interfere with her deputies issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Rick Santorum claimed the SCOTUS marriage ruling in Obergefell is “not the law of the land.”
That false statement was followed by another: the Supreme Court, Santorum claimed, said religious accommodations should be made for people like Kim Davis.
EARLIER TODAY:Â Breaking Video: Kim Davis Will Not Obey SCOTUS But Will Not Prohibit Deputies From Issuing Licenses
“I would encourage Kim Davis to follow her conscience,” Santorum told CNN’s “New Day” this morning. “The Supreme Court decision made no provision for what county clerks should do. In fact, they wrote extensively about how after this decision there had to be accommodations, there had to be things works out by the legislatures and others as to how to implement the court decision,” the GOP presidential candidate claimed.
“Kim Davis has every right to say this should be a religious accommodation, I believe the state of Kentucky, as well as the federal government should be passing things like the First Amendment Defense Act, which does provide accommodations for people both in government and out of government who have religious convictions that differ with the Court ruling.”
“Because the Supreme Court says something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the law of the land,” Santorum, running for President but at the bottom of the polls, said. “My belief is that when the Supreme Court acts beyond their constitutional authority, that we have every obligation to fight that, and I think if you look at Justice Roberts’ opinion, he said there’s no constitutional basis for this decision, that the court acted beyond its authority.”
Justice Roberts was in the minority, so his opinion carries zero legal weight.
“The Supreme Court made a decision about same-sex marriage, again, which I believe was beyond their authority to do so, but it did not provide anything that Kim Davis had to issue a marriage license,” Santorum continued. “It said, very clearly, that there had to be accommodations provided for people of faith.”
The First Amendment Defense Act Santorum referred to is a license to discriminate against LGBT people being push by the GOP in Congress.
On Sunday, the New York Times Editorial Board called it “a nasty bit of business” that “would not…defend the First Amendment” but “would deliberately warp the bedrock principle of religious freedom under the Constitution” and “would permit discrimination against anyone who has sexual relations outside… heterosexual marriages.”
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who did not conduct the interview, dashed off this tweet after Santorum’s interview, apparently in shock:
Others on Twitter were also quick to respond:
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