Huckabee wants judge impeached after gay marriage ruling

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) is calling for the impeachment of the judge who struck down the gay marriage ban that he signed into law 17 years ago.

Huckabee, a former presidential candidate and staunch social conservative, called on the state’s current governor, Mike Beebe (D), to call a special session of the state legislature to remove Judge Christopher Piazza from office. 

{mosads}”The Governor should call a special session of the legislature and impeach the judge and affirm the people’s will. If the people wish to allow same sex marriage, they can put that matter on the ballot and vote for it,” Huckabee said in a statement Sunday from his political action committee. 

Huckabee served as governor in the state from 1996-2007. In 1997, he signed a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman. He also served in office when the public overwhelmingly approved a gay marriage ban in 2004. 

Piazza ruled Friday that both the constitutional amendment and state law were unconstitutional, saying “the difference between opposite-sex and same-sex families is within the privacy of their homes.”

“The court is not unmindful of the criticism that judges should not be super legislators. However, the issue at hand is the fundamental right to marry being denied to an unpopular minority,” he wrote in his 13-page opinion. 

Huckabee asserted, Piazza “decided that he is singularly more powerful than the 135 elected legislators of the state, the elected Governor, and 75 percent of the voters of the state. Apparently he mistook his black robe for a cape and declared himself to be “SUPER LAWMAKER!”

The former Arkansas governor also blasted Piazza for issuing his ruling after the close of business Friday, which made “it impossible for the attorney general or other attorneys to file for an immediate stay of his overreaching decision.”

The state attorney general on Monday called for the state Supreme Court to stay the decision pending appeal after a few counties began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. 

While state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel recently came out in support of gay marriage, Beebe reiterated his opposition earlier this month.