Rubio: Same-sex marriage not ‘settled law’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says the Supreme Court decision earlier this year creating a constitutional right to gay marriage can still be changed.

{mosads}“It is the current law. I don’t believe any case law is settled law,” Rubio said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Any future Supreme Court can change it.”

“And ultimately, I will appoint Supreme Court justices that will interpret the Constitution as originally constructed,” he added.

Rubio called the decision ruling that states cannot prohibit the practice of same-sex marriage “bad law.”

“I don’t think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage,” he said. “That belongs at the state and local level.”

The Republican presidential hopeful said the court found a “hidden” right in the Constitution.

“What is wrong is that the Supreme Court has found this hidden constitutional right that 200 years of jurisprudence had not discovered and basically overturned the will of the 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,” he said.

Rubio also said he did not think a constitutional amendment to revoke the decision was necessary.

“As I’ve said, that would be conceding that the current Constitution is somehow wrong and needs to be fixed,” he said.

The Supreme Court voted 5–4 in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision last term to strike down state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.