Mike Huckabee: Dred Scott decision still ‘the law of the land’

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said this week the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford — which held that free or enslaved black people were not U.S. citizens — remains the “law of the land” in the country to this day.

Mr. Huckabee, who has defended Kentucky clerk Kim Davis’ decision to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, was trying to make a legal argument and told radio host Michael Medved he has been “drilled” by TV hosts recently.

” ’Well, how dare you say it’s not the law of the land?’ Because that’s their phrase — ’it’s the law of the land,’” Mr. Huckabee, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said in audio obtained by Buzzfeed. “Michael, [the] Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land, which says that black people aren’t fully human. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”

Mr. Medved said the 13th Amendment overturned the 1857 decision, which held that all blacks, either free or enslaved, could not be U.S. citizens. The story said that while the 13th Amendment ended slavery, it was the birthright citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment that overturned the Dred Scott decision.

Asked if he would try to push for a constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage, Mr. Huckabee said he didn’t think it was necessary.

“Because, in the case of this decision, it goes back to what Jefferson said that if a decision is rendered that is not borne out by the will of the people either through their elected representatives and gone through the process, if you just say it’s the law of the land because the court decided, then Jefferson said you now have surrendered to judicial tyranny,” he said.

“The Supreme Court in the same-sex marriage decision made a law. They made it up, and they made it up out of thin air,” he said. “Therefore, until Congress decides to codify that and give it a statute, it’s really not an operative law and that’s why what Kim Davis did was operate under not only the Kentucky Constitution, which was the law under which she was elected, but she’s operating under the fact that there is no statute in her state nor at the federal level that authorizes her.”