Huckabee: Dred Scott Decision “Remains To This Day The Law Of The Land”

[Are_grits_groceries]

While defending Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses out of her religious opposition to same-sex marriage, Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford — which held that all blacks, free or enslaved, could not be American citizens — is still the law of the land even though no one follows it.

Radio host Michael Medved quickly pointed out to the former governor of Arkansas that the decision was overturned by the 13th Amendment. (Although the 13th Amendment ended slavery, the birthright citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision.)

“I’ve been just drilled by TV hosts over the past week, ‘How dare you say that, uh, it’s not the law of the land?’” Huckabee said. “Because that’s their phrase, ‘it’s the law of the land. 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. Does anybody still follow the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision?”
<snip>
http://www.buzzfeed.com/christophermassie/huckabee-dred-scott-decision-remains-to-this-day-the-law-of

Do Jeebus!

[Mass]

1. It would seem there are quite a few supreme court decisions and constitutional amendments

going against this decision, I think.

Huckabee is an idiot.

[haikugal]

2. Was he homeschooled? Gad! n/t

[jwirr]

12. Worse than that - he was church schooled. I cannot

believe that idiot actually said that. The whole R panel of candidates are the lowest of low.

Wonder how Ben Carson is taking his new status?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

3. *riiiing* *riiiinnnnggg*

"Hello? Mr Fuckabee? Fourteenth Amendment here. Shut the fuck up."

[shenmue]

9. Every history teacher in the country

just threw up.

[louis-t]

14. At the very least, Huck's did.

[closeupready]

4. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, the closet is a psychologically damaging thing.

And it doesn't make gay men straighter the deeper one goes into it.

[irisblue]

6. clarify for me please Huckabee=gay man?

is that what you meant?

[merrily]

5. How does one miss that slavery is no longer the law of the land in the US?

And, no, that is not just a decision each individual makes not to follow the Dred Scott decision.

Unfuckingbelievable. I'm sorry, but someone needs to say it: You cannot make up this shit.

[hifiguy]

7. Nobody can be this dumb and still have

a functioning autonomic nervous system.

[LiberalLoner]

13. I don't even have a well-functioning autonomic nervous system but I'm still way

Smarter than Hucklebuckle.

[mmonk]

8. I never cease to be amazed by these people.

[freebrew]

25. It's just not amazing anymore with them...

it's expected.

Really unfortunate for our government and our future.
Are these the best and brightest the R's have to offer?

Now, that's scary!

[LiberalElite]

38. When I was a child and had just learned that a classmate's parents were Republicans I said EWWWW -

but back then there were conservative, moderate and even (GASP!) liberal Republicans. Imagine: normal people in the GOP. Thinking back, we didn't know how good we had it. I'm afraid I won't live to see normal Republicans again.
It's just an unmitigated freak show now.

[jberryhill]

10. Certain aspects of it remain

A Supreme Court decision is a bundle of things. Obviously, the part of the Dred Scott decision dealing with the direct question of the Fugitive Slave Act was rendered inoperative by the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution.

The birthright citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision insofar as a person born in the United States could be denied the privileges and immunities of any state, upon taking up residence in another state. However, the Dred Scott decision did establish that persons (otherwise recognized as citizens) are citizens of the their state of residence, and that no state can grant "state citizenship" to a person who is not otherwise a US citizen.

That "Dred Scott is still good law" is one of those inane "fun facts to impress your friends" which is pointed out to law students when the case comes up in con law class.

If, for example, you live in New York and you drive to Connecticut, the state of Connecticut can't take your car away from you, on the ground that your car is not registered to you in Connecticut. Your car is titled to you in New York, and Connecticut is bound by the Constitution to recognize your New York registration, provided you have not left New York permanently and taken up residence in Connecticut (most states provide a grace period for re-registration of your car when you move).

What the Reconstruction Amendments did to Dred Scott was to prevent its application to the ownership of PEOPLE, and ended the non-recognition of rights of citizenship, by any state, to people who were born into a condition of servitude in the US.

One of the other points at issue was whether a person who was not recognized as a citizen either by their former state or by the United States, could become a US citizen by moving to a state which would recognize that person as a citizen. The answer at that time was "no", and it remains "no". Of course, in the context of that case, the reason why the person was not recognized as a citizen by their state of origin or the US, was because he was born a slave in a slave state. Hence, not having been a citizen of the US, he did not become one by moving to another state. That, of course, no longer applies to persons born in the US. But the general principle, of course, still applies that only US law can determine whether someone is a citizen of the US or a citizen of the state in which they reside. For example, a state cannot recognize an undocumented immigrant as a citizen of that state, if the US does not recognize that person as a citizen.

That said, the statement by Huckabee is breathtakingly stupid in its context here. The general principle of Dred Scott - that US law determines citizenship and that state citizenship is determined by residence - is thoroughly mundane, and thoroughly irrelevant to anything going on in the Kentucky marriage license follies.

[Calista241]

43. Interesting.

Nice, informative post.

[Stallion]

11. Not According to Westlaw

It has a Negative Treatment index a mile long-most cases say it has been superseded by statute including the U.S. Supreme Court. There is no way to delete a former opinion in the law books like you can a statute which may be amended or may be repealed-bad opinions are there forever although the legal precedent may reject all or part of it like the prior poster pointed out

[Initech]

15. I thought that the racists were on Donald Trump’s side.

They should be supporting Huckabee, he seems to more openly cater to their interests.

[klook]

22. There's an embarrassment of riches

for Republican voters shopping around for the most regressive candidate. Phuckabee is making a strong challenge to tRump's position as Imperial Wizard of the RKK.

[Rex]

16. Even though that is a horribly inaccurate statement, what does it have to do with Kim Davis?

I understand Suckabee was trying to make a point (a bad one which is false), but STILL...what does Dred Scott have to do with marriage equality? Here let me answer that - NOTHING!

Pathetic, history FAIL.

[oberliner]

37. I think the idea is that unjust laws ought not to be followed?

I think that is the angle he is going for.

[malaise]

17. Fuckabee is a really stupid man

and he may well wish it were still so.

[mercuryblues]

18. Straight from Barton

HUCKABEE: I, I almost wish there could be a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced,...FORCED at gun point no less,...to listen to EVERY David Barton message.

David Barton is where huckster gets his edumacation from. David Barton who had a book on Jefferson pulled from publication because it had so many lies in it. Ironically it was titled Jefferson Lies: Exposing the myths you always believed about Jefferson.

In the rightwing nuttery circuit Barton is considered a genius. Barton teaches only Christians are eligible to hold public office, according to the Constitution.

[struggle4progress]

19. Translation: if elected, Huckster promises to send runaway darkies home to massah!

[roamer65]

20. No Suckabee, the 14th amendment trumps the Scott decision.

Amendments that are ratified nullify any conflicting SCOTUS constitutional interpretations. The SCOTUS cannot disobey the Constitution, it can only interpret it.

That is why you will have to amend the Constition to protect your precious little fetuses, you jackass. But that will not happen..hahahah.

[Major Nikon]

21. This is what the right calls an intellectual

[sinkingfeeling]

23. See what happens when you don't understand history or the goverment.

[lykemike]

24. makes total sense

Don't all repubs believe I'm less than a man? Huckabee's remarks actually provide insight as to why that is. Not at all surprising in today's GOP.
DR. Carson will need 3x as many votes just to tie Donald Trump.

[LynneSin]

32. Join the group, as a woman I am not capable of making my own decisions, according to the GOP

in a nutshell since neither of us (or about 99% of the USA in general) are not wealthy white men we really do not matter in their eyes.

Oh and welcome to DU

[MineralMan]

26. Thank goodness that man has no chance of ever

being on the ballot for the office of President. He is an abject moron, to say the least.

[jtuck004]

40. Ironic. He probably has a greater chance here than almost anywhere else, and could

help bring the greatest damage.

[tclambert]

27. Sure, the 14th Amendment supersedes it, but Republicans think the 14th Amendment is unconstitutional

See, Republicans, and especially Teabaggers, really, really revere the Constitution. They don't need to actually read it because they all know instinctively what's in the Constitution and what it really means. Anything in the Constitution they don't agree with they call unconstitutional. If you try to explain what the word "unconstitutional" means, then you're just some kind of grammar nazi, and they know what they mean and they know what they know and they do so love the constitution even if the only part of it they can quote from memory is about half of the Second Amendment.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

30. Stephen Colbert had a word for how conservatives choose to interpret the Constitution

Truthiness - When you feel it in your gut, you know it must be right.

[no_hypocrisy]

28. Huckabee chose inappropriate caselaw.

Would have been better to cite:

A) U.S. v. Koramatsu - Federal government can legally detain and imprison citizens without habeus corpus based on their ethnicity. While the government doesn't do this anymore, the decision hasn't been overturned or overruled.

B) Bell v. Buck - State governments can legally sterilize any resident with due process if there is a statute allowing such procedure. I believe the trend peaked and dwindled by 1977. Again, while not done as policy anymore, the law is still viable.

My point: If a "rogue" government employee was ordered to facilitate sterilization or detaining a citizen on the basis of "national security", and that employee refused to execute that order on the basis of personal religion, the same situation exists: the employee has to resign if s/he can't implement the order. Until the law is changed, the employee has to either follow the law or resign under protest.

[samsingh]

29. huckabee seems to be misinformed about everything.

[LynneSin]

31. THIS, is why Mike Huckabee isn't even qualified to be President of his local homeowner association

To be so horribly clueless and allowed access to a TV Camera and/or microphone is a dangerous thing. And what's worse is the idiots out there that would want him to be the President of their United States.

[Angry Dragon]

33. once more Micky proves he has no mind

[spanone]

34. huckabee isn't worth the hate he riles up in me.

i fart in his general direction

[JDPriestly]

35. Ted Cruz allegedly graduated from some third-rate podunk law school. (Joking about third-rate, etc.

Surely Ted Cruz will set Huckabee straight on how the Constitution and the courts work.

Let's hope.

[IronLionZion]

36. The constitution just doesn't exist to these people

apparently amendments stop being valid after the 2nd?

[gordianot]

39. Huckabee is not a segregationist as I claimed on a similar thread.

Segregation is several levels ahead of what he suggests. Huckabee his delusions, fallacies, fantasies and misinterpretations are not to just get attention.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

41. I see, so people being property is just a question of selective enforcement....

I still say this is the kind of thing that comes from gin drinkers.

[PATRICK]

42. I am trying to remember

the days when a stupid or offensive statement knocked you right out of the race, no apology awaited. The GOP low bar has been replaced simply by "the drinks are on the GOP house bar" with a wink at the supposedly non-acoholic beverages of the values wing. And when things get more serious with fewer contenders there are no recalls of past blunders, crimes, gaffes at all- and even less acknowledgment when they continue on the campaign trail because- hey- by now the anointed GOP candidate has almost reached apotheosis.

The Democrats on the other hand have almost hardened themselves in many cases into reviled sainthood, despised intelligence, either in public appearance or in actuality.

[Dont call me Shirley]

44. Oh so you support your activist judges, Mike. Judges are arbiters of law, not Lawmakers, that's

the job of Congress.

[Lifelong Protester]

45. What.An.Ass.

Period.