Mike Huckabee urged the GOP presidential nominee to challenge President Obama over the alleged inconsistency of defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act while failing to uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. “Regardless of your views on marriage, what this reveals is a very interesting approach that President Obama seems to take to court decisions,” the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential contender said during the inaugural broadcast of The Mike Huckabee Show:
HUCKABEE: If they agree with his particular legislative package, he thinks the court should be obeyed explicitly. But when they disagree with him, he thinks they ought to be ignored. So I think that’s one of the real questions that hopefully whoever the Republican nominee is…that we’re going to find a very important part of the process of this presidential campaign.
Listen:
Lost in Huckabee’s parallel however, is the fact that DOMA is unconstitutional because it violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause by denying benefits to gay and lesbian couples, while the Affordable Care Act regulates the kind of economic commerce that is encompassed by the Constitution’s commerce clause. Huckabee is more than happy to draw similarities that reflect poorly on Obama, but one wonders if he would argue that a Republican president should defend the constitutionality of health reform if he also stands by DOMA.
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