Report: Cruz urges states to ignore gay marriage ruling

[Newsjock]

Source: Houston Chronicle

Texas senator and GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz said during an NPR interview on Monday that states should ignore the Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

His reasoning? States not specifically named in the case don't have to follow the ruling, he says.

The states listed in the gay marriage suit, Obergefell v. Hodges, included Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Report-Cruz-urges-states-to-ignore-gay-marriage-6356881.php

[Thinkingabout]

1. He can never take the oath to be president, he can't follow the rulings of the SC.

[Plucketeer]

2. WOW!

What an INCREDIBLE BUFFOON! Directing agencies to circumvent the rule of law. His state really should leave the union and become a country of it's own - with NO avenue of reversal once the people there realize what DOLTS they've sent to DC to represent them!

[shenmue]

3. Does he even know how to read?

[irisblue]

4. and he went to law school? wow

[waddirum]

37. and he clerked for Justice Rhenquist

on the Supreme Court.

[HooptieWagon]

5. Inciting a crime makes him part of a conspiracy, no?

Arrest and impeach him.

[jmowreader]

6. You can't impeach him, and that's the Founding Fathers' worst failing

They put into the Constitution a mechanism for the judicial branch and the legislative branch to join together to remove a president, and a method for the executive and legislative branches to remove a judge or Supreme Court justice. However, they didn't provide any way for the executive and judicial branches to remove a Member of Congress. The only way to get rid of one of them is for the body he or she is a member of to perform an ejection action.

The Founders may not have thought it necessary, but a very long list of (mostly Republican) disasters like Cruz, Gohmert, and the like have demonstrated it is.

[totodeinhere]

8. But local officials who follow his advice could be shown in contempt of court and

jailed I think. I'm not a lawyer but there must be some consequences for disobeying a Supreme Curt order.

[jmowreader]

9. That could happen, and I think it has...

[cui bono]

14. Like this ejection action?

The first one seems like a good one for him:

[jmowreader]

18. Well...I don't know...

Think more along the lines of Christopher Walken throwing Michelle Pfeiffer out of a 30th-story window in Batman Returns.

[Angleae]

22. Actually you can impeach any government official.

The Constitution does not limit impeachment to a specific position, it only says that the house has sole power of impeachment and the senate shall try all cases of impeachment. However it's far easier to remove a representative or senator by the house or senate rules where it's usually just a simple majority of that chamber to remove such an individual.

[jmowreader]

23. Not quite what I was thinking

There needs to be some way for the other two branches of government to remove a rogue legislator.

[onenote]

31. Actually, the Constitution does limit who is subject to impeachment

Impeachment is reserved for the President, Vice President, and all "civil officers" of the United States. While the term "civil officers" is not defined in the Constitution, for more than 200 years it has been understood not to include members of Congress.

But if you have legal authority you can point to that supports a different conclusion, I'd be interested in seeing it.

[Angleae]

35. William Blount, senator from Tennessee, July 7, 1797

The house voted to take up impeachment hearings but the senate refused to take it up instead expelling him under their own authority.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blount

He's the only one to date but it's far easier to expell a member due to rules of the house/senate (simple majority vote, only one chamber involved).

[onenote]

36. Actually, the Senate voted to dismiss on the grounds that Senators weren't subject to being

impeached under the Constitution, notwithstanding what the House had done. And it has never happened again.

[onenote]

32. Worst failing? Worse than the 3/5 compromise?

Worse than no acknowledging women's right to vote? (Among other things).

And the executive branch has no role in proceedings to impeach a member of the judiciary and the only role the judicial branch has in impeachment proceedings is that in the impeachment of a President, the Chief Justice sits as the presiding judge.

The symmetry you suggest exists doesn't actually exist.

[ColesCountyDem]

25. It isn't inciting a crime.

If anything, he's inciting civil contempt of court, and even that's questionable.

[SCVDem]

7. Book him Danno!

Well, it's a nice thought

So many idiots!

[Zambero]

10. So a state could also ignore Congress then?

There are three branches of government, established and ingrained in the Constitution for the purpose of assuring checks and balances. If a state doesn't agree with any one of them (Obamacare for instance, even though it was enacted and upheld by all three branches), just wish it away. For someone who proclaims to be a strict Constitutionalist, Cruz seems to be opening up a can of worms for himself.

[PoliticAverse]

11. "States not specifically named in the case don't have to follow the ruling"

Although perhaps technically correct, should a state not follow the ruling someone
affected in that state would likely file suit in federal court and the court would use
the Supreme Court decision to rule against that state in short order.

[Initech]

12. And he wants to be president? I have one thing to say about that:

[Gman]

13. Never underestimate Cruz

The guy went to Princeton and graduated from the Harvard Law School. An idiot he is not in any way.

Everything Cruz does or says is directed to the mindless right wing. He knows how to say the right things to them. He knows what if any penalty he'll pay for what he says or even does. He can shut down the government with impunity politically and he knew it. And he made his own stock skyrocket in right wing circles around by the process.

You shouldn't take what he says as being the babbling of an idiot Sane minds think WTF? The mindless right wing cheer him on. His NPR interview was for just such types who will slso vote in the GOP primary.

[BrotherIvan]

17. I went to a big name school

And it was full of fucking idiots. So I don't think his diplomas mean much. But he has fooled enough people to become a Senator, so there is that.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. Shrub graduated from Yale & Harvard

Cotton from Harvard, and McCain from Anapolis.

'Nuff said*?

[font size="1"] *(sometimes it's who one knows and not what one knows)[/font]

[Martin Eden]

24. I never underestimate the stupidity of people who vote for Ted Cruz and his ilk

He's a skilled snake oil salesman who knows his market. Cruz is a demagogue who reminds me of Joe McCarthy.

[cui bono]

15. This makes his appearance on the Tavis Smiley show that much more disgusting.

I heard him on Smiley's radio show this weekend and both of them made me want to puke.

Smiley said it was "an honor" to have Cruz on the show and then proceeded to allow him to spout his nonsense with barely a word of disagreement and when he did it was so light. Is Smiley a Republican??? He sure treated him with respect and kid gloves. Blech.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. Yet DUers were cheering on Smiley and West with great vigor. nt

[underthematrix]

16. well domestic terrorist Ted Cruz did run on a

seditionist platform, e.g. overthrowing US gov't

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Gee, What Happened to the RULE OF LAW GOP?

Cruz is as bonkers as Scalia

What are they smoking?

[Chasstev365]

26. It's Official!

TED CRUZ = GEORGE WALLACE!

[Paladin]

27. Not even Crazy Tony Scalia resorted to that depth of interpretive idiocy.

Every day that Cruz is out there, stirring the shit like this, the less I believe he's a genuine presidential candidate. I think he's just padding his resume with the Insane Right-Wing in this country, looking to make a ton of money from it.

[bigworld]

28. The GOP candidates are all grovelling toward the extremes in the party

I think there is a significant number of Republicans who aren't as opposed to the ruling to the apocalyptic level that they imagine.

Really, the Country Club, Libertarian, younger, and Business Republicans are all onboard with it - or don't care -- it's just the evangelical wing that's so upset. Or am I misreading everything? Have there been any polls done on the topic?

[Nitram]

29. Yup, that that Teddy Cruz shore is prezidnshul material!

"If elected, I will encourage all the states to secede and will disband the union."

[Darb]

30. Cruz is a Bush v. Gore toadie that is using the exact playbook as did George Derrrrr Bush,

appealing to the morons and the moron fundies. I think that he might be the running mate of Jeb Bush, because somebody has to bring out the loonies.

[sulphurdunn]

33. I think this is called nullification.

Cruz is a neo-Confederate. He has just publicly repudiated his oath of office and encouraged others to do likewise. He is in fact inciting rebellion against the federal authority of the United States. Who would ever trust such a traitor to take the oath of office of the President of the United States?

[HooptieWagon]

34. "Who would ever trust such a traitor...?"

Dumbass republicans. They don't believe in government, in particular the Federal Government. They will gladly elect a bomb-thrower to office to blow it up.