Carson: Dred Scott Ruling Shows POTUS Doesn’t Have To Follow Supreme Court

Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson speaks at Manchester Community College, Sunday, May 10, 2015, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
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Republican presidential candidate and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson cited the Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling to support his argument that the president of the United States wouldn’t have to follow through with a high court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

As TPM previously noted, Carson argued that a ruling by the high court wiping out a series of same-sex marriage bans across wouldn’t make the president go along with such a decision.

Bloomberg Politics pressed Carson on his comments during a gathering in Greenville, South Carolina and Carson cited the court’s 1857 Dred Scott ruling validating slavery to support his claim.

“Probably the best thing to do is go back and read about the Dred Scott case,” Carson said. “And as you know, President Lincoln wasn’t too much in favor of that. And his policies indicated that. Clearly it created a lot of division. We ended up fighting a war over it but in the long run it was the right thing to do.”

As Bloomberg noted, no other presidential candidate has argued that the president could disregard the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.

Quite the contrary, in fact. Fellow Republican presidential contender Carly Fiorina, actually, recently signaled that if she were president she would consider whatever ruling the high court handed down on same-sex marriage final word. Fiorina also said she wouldn’t support a constitutional amendment overturning a ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

“I think the Supreme Court ruling will become the law of the land and however much I may agree or disagree with it, I wouldn’t support an amendment to reverse it,” Fiorina said.

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