WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio suggested that the justices he nominates to the Supreme Court may roll back marriage equality, in an interview that aired Sunday.
The Florida senator cited Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" during an interview with Chuck Todd on "Meet The Press" and said he disagreed with the Supreme Court's decision that struck down state bans on same-sex marriage. Rubio said that "no one should ever be compelled to sin by law" and that a minister should not be compelled to marry a same-sex couple, which is not something that has happened.
"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," Rubio said.
Rubio dismissed the idea of attempting to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage because, he said, "I don't think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage."
He disagreed with the Supreme Court's ruling that state bans on same-sex marriage discriminate against gays and lesbians.
"It's not about discrimination. It is about the definition of a very specific, traditional, and age-old institution," he said. "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."
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