When Mike Huckabee found out that a circuit court judge in Arkansas had declared the state’s gay-marriage ban unconstitutional, he hit the ceiling. In a post on the Website of his political action committee, Huck PAC, Huckabee demanded that the state legislature make Sixth Circuit Judge Chris Piazza pay for this ruling by impeaching him.
Huckabee signed a law that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman while he was governor of Arkansas, and also supported a 2004 referendum that wrote that ban into the state constitution. He fumed that Piazza apparently thought he was “singularly more powerful than the 135 elected legislators of the state, the elected Governor, and 75% of the voters of the state” when he issued his ruling on Friday. To Huckabee’s mind, when Piazza issued his ruling, he must have thought that his oath to support the Arkansas constitution “didn’t really mean anything.” He claimed that Piazza had overstepped his authority by ordering courts to recognize same-sex marriage, and demanded that Governor Mike Beebe call the state legislature into special session to consider Piazza’s impeachment.
Huckabee repeats a common lie espoused by his religious right compatriots–that laws enacted by referenda are somehow over and above other laws. When Huckabee wrung his hands at how Piazza could have possibly dared to bring down his gavel on this law, he forgot that a law enacted by a referendum must pass the same constitutional muster as a law enacted by the legislature. Huckabee also forgets that Piazza swore to uphold the Arkansas constitution where it doesn’t conflict with the federal constitution. Piazza’s ruling declared–rightly–that both the 1997 law and the 2004 amendment violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the federal constitution. Huckabee also forgets that it is long-established precedent in this country that bad rulings are not an impeachable offense.
We already knew that Huckabee had long since dropped any pretense of being a kinder, gentler religious right leader. But this statement is staggering even by his standards. Then again, we are talking about a guy who claimed the Sandy Hook shooting happened because we kicked God out of our schools and wondered if North Koreans have more freedom than we do.
Edited/Published by:SB
Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
