Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Thursday that the recent Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage was a 'rogue' decision, comparing it to the pro-slavery Dred Scott decision that preceded the Civil War.
Santorum was asked by Fox News host Bill Hemmer whether Obergefell v. Hodges – the recent Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage across the nation – was settled law.
“It is not any more than Dred Scott was settled law to Abraham Lincoln, who, in his first inaugural address, said ‘it won't stand,’” Santorum responded. “And they went ahead and passed laws in direct contravention to a rogue Supreme Court.”
The 1857 Dred Scott v. Sanford decision centered around Missouri slave Dred Scott, who lived in the free state of Illinois between 1833 and 1843 before returning to Missouri. Scott sued for his freedom, claiming his residency in a free state made him a free man.
However, the Court ruled in a 7-2 decision that Scott was still a slave, and concluded that no person descended from an American slave had ever been a citizen of the United States.
Santorum said that, like the Dred Scott decision, the Obergefell ruling was a "rogue" decision.
“This is a rogue Supreme Court decision, just like Justice Roberts said,” Santorum said, adding that “there is no constitutional basis” for the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage.
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