Mike Huckabee’s Unintended Consequences

Posted by | January 22, 2015 21:00 | Filed under: Contributors News Behaving Badly Politics Tengrain Top Stories


On the Hugh Hewitt radio show, we were treated to an unusual interpretation of the judicial and legislative processes courtesy of former Governor Huckabee of Arkansas:

One thing I am angry about, though, Hugh, is this notion of judicial supremacy, where if the courts make a decision, I hear governors and even some aspirants to the presidency say well, that’s settled, and it’s the law of the land. No, it isn’t the law of the land. Constitutionally, the courts cannot make a law. They can interpret one. And then the legislature has to create enabling legislation, and the executive has to sign it, and has to enforce it.

As the former governor of Arkansas, you might think that he would know the history of his state:

“The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

It seems that Gov. Faubus thought that the orders from the Supreme Court were not valid, and the President and the National Guard educated him otherwise.

The discredited (by the Civil War, no less) idea of Nullification (that states can nullify federal laws that they disagree with or not enact/enforce them) is not new to Huckabee. Perhaps he is playing semantic games? That the Supreme Court invalidating a law is not the same thing as legislators passing a law?

What wingnuts like Huckabee always forget is that Nullification (if it were possible) could swing both ways. If conservative states can pick and choose which laws that they want to enforce, so could liberal ones. Let’s see how fast Wingnuttia would drop the idea of Nullification if they realized that many states would immediately allow abortion on demand without restrictions.

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Tengrain

Fully caffeinated with twice the sugar, unabashedly liberal. Award-winning Americans United blogger, blogs at Mock Paper Scissors, and sometimes at Crooks and Liars.

You can follow @Tengrain on Twitter, or you might see him enjoying coffee somewhere in Seattle at any given moment of the day.

14 responses to Mike Huckabee’s Unintended Consequences

  1. tracey marie January 22nd, 2015 at 21:03

    old huck needs to takle his supersized ass home, he has a dog torturer for a son and a bunch of heart attacks waiting to happen family, take care of your home

  2. tracey marie January 22nd, 2015 at 22:03

    old huck needs to takle his supersized ass home, he has a dog torturer for a son and a bunch of heart attacks waiting to happen family, take care of your home

  3. alpacadaddy January 22nd, 2015 at 21:38

    Non-stop Far-Right blather straight from Planet Wingnuttia (but then again, he IS a Faux & Frauds regular!)

  4. alpacadaddy January 22nd, 2015 at 22:38

    Non-stop Far-Right blather straight from Planet Wingnuttia (but then again, he IS a Faux & Frauds regular!)

  5. neworleans878 January 22nd, 2015 at 22:20

    Conservatives hate Nullification in the case of marijuana and want the Feds to step in. Want things both ways.

  6. nola878 January 22nd, 2015 at 23:20

    Conservatives hate Nullification in the case of marijuana and want the Feds to step in. Want things both ways.

  7. Dcbos January 22nd, 2015 at 23:17

    Most dinosaurs are dead except for this ignorantasaurus.

    • bpollen January 23rd, 2015 at 02:21

      Carbonemys cofrinii McConnell is still sticking around too…

  8. Dcbos January 23rd, 2015 at 00:17

    Most dinosaurs are dead except for this ignorantasaurus.

    • bpollen January 23rd, 2015 at 03:21

      Carbonemys cofrinii McConnell is still sticking around too…

  9. labman57 January 22nd, 2015 at 23:21

    To demonstrate their commitment to “the law of the land” and our sacred U.S. Constitution, many conservative pundits and politicians strive to eliminate those Amendments that conflict with their ideology, simply ignore other sections that they find inconvenient to honor, and to pick and choose which court rulings they deem worthy to uphold and which federal laws they will encourage their constituents to defy.

  10. labman57 January 23rd, 2015 at 00:21

    To demonstrate their commitment to “the law of the land” and our sacred U.S. Constitution, many conservative pundits and politicians strive to eliminate those Amendments that conflict with their ideology, simply ignore other sections that they find inconvenient to honor, and to pick and choose which court rulings they deem worthy to uphold and which federal laws they will encourage their constituents to defy.

  11. Larry Schmitt January 23rd, 2015 at 07:09

    Well, that makes it official, Huckleberry has disqualified himself from being president.

  12. Larry Schmitt January 23rd, 2015 at 08:09

    Well, that makes it official, Huckleberry has disqualified himself from being president.

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