In a recent interview, Republican
presidential candidate Mike Huckabee blasted liberals for supporting
states rights on marijuana sales but not on gay marriage.
Appearing on KCCI, the Des Moines, Iowa
CBS affiliate, Huckabee compared states that allow people to buy pot
and Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who is fighting to keep her
office from issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples
because to do so would violate her conscience.
“Let me ask you this,” Huckabee
said. “How come it's that liberals are okay with not keeping the
federal law when it comes to the marijuana laws and it's okay for the
states to ignore it, but if it comes to a county clerk in Kentucky
who doesn't believe that she can abide by a federal court ruling, not
even a law, then she goes to jail?”
“Do you see where conservatives
sometimes their heads explode because they say, 'Boy, there's one set
of rules for people on the left and a total different set of rules
for people on the right?'”
Writing
at Reason.com, Jacob Sullum noted the problems with Huckabee's
analogy.
“[T]he inconsistency that Huckabee
perceives evaporates once you realize that legalizing marijuana at
the state level is perfectly consistent with the Constitution, while
Davis's refusal to do her job was not – at least, not according to
the way the Supreme Court has interpreted the 14th Amendment's
guarantee of equal protection,” Sullum wrote. “I realize that
Huckabee disagrees with that interpretation, but the order he
dismisses as a mere 'court ruling,' worthy of less respect than a
statute, was aimed at enforcing a constitutional requirement.”