NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — Conservative darling Ben Carson suggested to a packed room of supporters at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday that Congress should punish federal judges who defy the will of the people.
“The Constitution also says that Congress has oversight of all inferior courts. That means the federal courts —only one they don’t have jurisdiction over is the Supreme Court,” Carson said. “So when these federal judges come in and interfere and overturn the will of the people, the people who have voted for something, Congress has a responsibility to do something about this because it says that those judges serve as long as they are doing a satisfactory job. But it’s not satisfactory when they’re going against the will of the people.”
Carson didn’t directly say gay marriage but his comments stacked on earlier ones he’s made in an interview on Steve Deace’s podcast in which he said Congress should remove federal judges who rule in favor of gay marriage.
Carson reiterated those comments on Thursday during his Coffee Reception with Dr. Ben Carson event.
“It’s for a very specific reason that the Constitution says that civil matters will be handled at the state level and the reason the reason why is because the people would be able to express their will,” Carson said. The neurosurgeon added federal judges are different from lower court state judges who have to answer to the people and therefore won’t go against the will of the people on issues like gay marriage.
“When you have federal judges who have no responsibility to the people, that’s what happens,” Carson said.
Carson has suggested that he’s planning to run for president in 2016.
