Mike Huckabee on Thursday said the Dred Scott decision denying U.S. citizenship to African-Americans is the law of the land.
Huckabee mentioned the Supreme Court decision as he defended Kentucky clerk Kim Davis’s decision to defy the court’s ruling on gay marriage and refuse to issue marriage licenses.
{mosads}“Michael, the Dred Scott decision of 1857 still remains to this day the law of the land, which says that black people aren’t fully human,” Huckabee told radio show host Michael Medved. “Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”
Dred Scott was overturned by the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868.
The former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate has referred to the infamous decision several times in defense of Davis, but this is the first time he has described it as the “law of the land.” Huckabee’s comments were first reported by BuzzFeed.
Huckabee previously had argued against the legal doctrine of judicial supremacy, which holds that the Judiciary is the final arbiter of the U.S. Constitution.
“So, I go back to my question, is slavery the law of the land, should it have been the law of the land because Dred Scott said so?” Huckabee asked on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday. “Was that a correct decision? Should the courts have been irrevocably followed on that? Should Lincoln have been put in jail? Because he ignored it. That’s the fundamental question.”
Davis was jailed for five days after being held in contempt of court on Sept. 3.
A representative from the Huckabee campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.