Huckabee Provides Ninth Grade Civics Lesson To Fox News Sunday Viewers

Thanks to my brother-in-law for letting me know that Mike Huckabee was interviewed on Fox News Sunday this past weekend regarding Governor Huckabee's presidential candidacy. 

 

Click here to hear the interview where Governor Huckabee addresses Hillary's e-mails regarding Benghazi, the NSA bulk data collection of phone records, the future of Medicare & Social Security, & how the FairTax transfers power from the politicians to the people. 

 

The governor also provided a ninth grade civics lesson concerning the balance of power between the three branches of government as defined in the Constitution - specifically responding to whether or not he would obey Supreme Court rulings if elected president.  Host Chris Wallace presented two gotcha examples pertaining to disregarding & refusing to obey Supreme Court rulings – 1) desegregation of Arkansas schools in the 1950s & 2) Nixon hypothetically deciding not to turn over the Watergate tapes in 1973 in defiance of the Supreme Court.

 

Reference posts: 1) Huckabee Candidacy Solves Two Gigantic Issues & 2) WSJ Letter Shows House Suit Against BO Full Of Danger

 

Reference - The Federalist No. 78: Hamilton – May 28, 1788

 

The transcript of the portion of the program pertaining to the Supreme Court is below. 

 

WALLACE: Governor, I want to keep moving along, because as I say, there are a lot of things you said in your announcement. You also seemed to indicate that as president, you wouldn't necessarily obey court rulings, even the Supreme Court. Here you are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUCKABEE: Many of our politicians have surrendered to the false god of judicial supremacy, which would allow black robed and unelected judges the power to make law as well as enforce it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: But, Governor, we have operated under the principle of judicial review since the Marbury versus Madison case in 1803.

HUCKABEE: Judicial review is actually what we've operated under. We have not operated under judicial supremacy. Presidents Lincoln, Jefferson, Jackson, presidents have understood that the Supreme Court cannot make a law. They cannot make it. The legislature has to make it, the executive branch has to sign it and enforce it.

And the notion that the Supreme Court comes up with the ruling and that automatically subjects the two other branches to following it defies everything there is about the three equal branches of government. Chris, the Supreme Court is not the supreme branch. And for God's sake, it isn't the Supreme Being. It is the Supreme Court.

WALLACE: But, sir, George Will, the conservative columnist, has pointed out that back in 1957, another governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, decided to disregard and refuse to obey the ruling to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower had to call in the 101st Airborne.

Are you saying President Huckabee might decide he wasn't going to obey the ruling on desegregation, or like President Nixon to turn over the tapes? You know, it's up in the air as to whether you're going to obey the Supreme Court?

HUCKABEE: Well, Chris, as you know, George Will is no fan of mine. He's not very fond of me. He recently called me appalling. So, I'm not surprised he would make such a false comparison.

But the point is, in that case, the Supreme Court had ruled the legislature and the executive branch had agreed with the Supreme Court, and precisely what happened is what should happen. The president ordered the airborne to come in and enforce the law, the law that did exist.

WALLACE: But --

HUCKABEE: It wasn't that the president defied the law. The president was carrying out the law and using all the forces at his resource to do it.

WALLACE: But, OK, let's say the president decided, "I don't like the Supreme Court's ruling on that," let's say Nixon had said, for instance, in Watergate, "I don't want to turn over the tapes and the court can't make me"?

HUCKABEE: Well, the president has to follow whatever the law is. Does Congress have a law that tells him what he is going to do? In that case, the Congress was ready to impeach Nixon and he ultimately resigned.

I want to get back to the main point here. It's a matter of balance of power. If the Supreme Court could just make a ruling and everybody has to bow down and fall on their faces and worship that law, it isn't a law because it hasn't been yet passed.

Then, what if the Supreme Court ruled they were going to make the decision as to who was going to be the next president and save the taxpayers and voter from all the expense and trouble of voting, and they'll just pick a president? Well, we would say, "Well, they can't do that." Why can't they do it? They can't do it because it's not in the law.

We are sworn to uphold the Constitution and law. And it has to be consistent and agreed upon with three branches of government -- one can't overrule the other two. That's all I'm saying. We learned that in ninth grade civics, but I'm convinced a lot of Ivy League law schools must have forgotten that simple basic civics lessons along the way.

WALLACE: Governor Huckabee, as I said, an awful lot of interesting things you said in your own announcement. I'm sure a lot of interesting things you're going to say in this campaign.