The left-wing blogosphere is exploding with hysterical clickbait headlines like “[Marco] Rubio Outlines Plan To End Marriage Equality,” “Rubio Wants to Leave Interracial Marriage to the States,” “Marco Rubio Says He Has a Plan to Make Gay Marriage Illegal Again,” and so on.
What did Rubio actually say? Basic principles about case law (emphasis added):
CHUCK TODD: But [same-sex marriage imposed by judicial fiat is] done now. Are you going to work to overturn it?
MARCO RUBIO: You can’t work to overturn it. What you–
CHUCK TODD: Sure. You can do a constitutional amendment.
MARCO RUBIO: As I’ve said, that would be conceding that the current Constitution is somehow wrong and needs to be fixed. I don’t think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage. That belongs at the state and local level. And that’s why if you want to change the definition of marriage, which is what this argument is about.
It’s not about discrimination. It is about the definition of a very specific, traditional, and age-old institution. That definitional change, if you want to change it, you have a right to petition your state legislature and your elected representatives to do it. What is wrong is that the Supreme Court has found this hidden constitutional right that 200 years of jurisprudence had not discovered and basically overturn the will of voters in Florida where over 60 percent passed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage in the state constitution as the union of one man and one woman.
CHUCK TODD: So are you accepting the idea of same sex marriage in perpetuity?
MARCO RUBIO: It is the current law. I don’t believe any case law is settled law. Any future Supreme Court can change it. And ultimately, I will appoint Supreme Court justices that will interpret the Constitution as originally constructed.
Let’s get this straight: The Left is manufacturing outrage about stare decisis while simultaneously supporting presidential candidates who are repeatedly promising to overturn Citizens United v. FEC (2010) and Shelby County v. Holder (2013). How’s that for sheer hypocrisy?