BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Friday afternoon on Yellowhammer Radio with Cliff Sims, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions shared his thoughts on the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down same-sex marriage bans across the country, calling it a “very serious and erroneous ruling.”
“On its pure legal basis, the Constitution says nothing about marriage,” Sen. Sessions asserted. “Since the founding of the Republic the states have decided marriage, and there’s not one hint in the Constitution there’s a constitutional right to redefine marriage from its current status. At the same time states are considering this in the political process with differing results. It’s the kind of thing that ought to be decided by the people.”
Though gay marriage was already legal in 34 states prior to Friday, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, struck down traditional marriage laws in the remaining states.
Libertarian-leaning Justice Anthony Kennedy sided with the Court’s four liberal Justices to render the decision.
Sessions maintained that having five unelected, lifetime-appointed persons “dictating such a tremendous basis is really damaging to the rule of law.”
“I think if these kind of rulings continue unhinged without any constitutional foundation, respect for the Court and the willingness of the people of the United States to just acquiesce to Court rulings is going to be undermined—which would be a colossal, damaging thing to our country,” Sessions added.
For Sessions, and many others, the hangup isn’t in the disagreement on how marriage is defined, but rather that the Court is taking liberties outside its duty to obey the rule of law—most importantly by interpreting those laws through the lens of the Constitution.
“I’m really frustrated about it,” Sessions explained. “We can disagree with how marriage should be defined, but I don’t think we should be having a diktat from 5 of 9 members of the Court impacting the laws of every state in America.”
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia slammed the decision made by the majority of his colleagues, saying, “A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy.”
Sims asked Sessions if he agrees with Scalia’s assessment.
“Unless there’s a constitutional provision that requires such a change, the Supreme Court does not have any basis to order a change,” Sessions responded, enthusiastically. “So Scalia, gosh, his quote was powerful. This is one of the smartest people ever to sit on the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Sessions then reminded proponents of traditional marriage who are now asking what’s next that any reversal of direction now would be “extremely difficult.”
“There’s no appeal from the Supreme Court,” said Sessions, a lawyer and former Alabama Attorney General. “It takes a constitutional amendment, now, to overturn their decision.”
But that doesn’t mean the American people are now without a voice to speak up against what Sessions called an abuse of power.
“I think this a time for the American people to start thinking clearly about how we can send a message to the Court that they are not free to just dictate policy from the bench,” the Senator expressed in response to the last two days’ rulings.
“The Court is not a superior branch,” he underscored. “It is not supposed to be setting policy.”
Many Republicans in Congress ran on promises they would “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, which the Supreme Court once again protected in a 6-3 decision Thursday. While the U.S. House voted multiple times to abolish the law, the Senate, which has now been under GOP control for six months, has yet to take such a vote.
Sessions said he is optimistic about the opportunity to scrap the law and put in its place a better alternative.
“We’re going to pass… a reform and a replacement of ObamaCare under budget reconciliation, which means it can’t be filibustered,” Sessions explained. “It can be passed with 51 votes. [Republicans] have 54 votes in the Senate, and though there are differences of opinions about what exactly we should do, I believe we can get the 51 to agree on a plan to fix this thing.”
Sessions admitted President Obama will certainly veto any legislations overturning or significantly altering his signature legislation, but said that healthcare is going to be a significant part of the national conversation surrounding the 2016 presidential election, and Congress would certainly be able to work with a Republican president.
Yellowhammer Radio airs daily in central and north Alabama from noon-1 p.m. on Superstation 101.1 WYDE and can be streamed online or through the TuneIn app. Audio of Friday’s segment with Senator Sessions can be found below.
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— Elizabeth BeShears (@LizEBeesh) January 21, 2015
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