U.S. senator says Supreme Court shouldn't have made interracial marriage legal
In an interview on Tuesday, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said the Supreme Court should not have legalized interracial marriage in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, saying the decision should have been left to the states.
Later, Braun walked back his remarks, saying in a statement that “there is no question the Constitution prohibits discrimination of any kind based on race, that is not something that is even up for debate.”
Video Transcript
- That same basis to something like Loving versus Virginia, the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage.
- So when it comes to issues, you can't have it both ways. When you want that diversity to shine within our federal system, there are going to be rules and proceedings. They're going to be out of sync with maybe what other states would do. It's the beauty of the system.
And that's where the differences among points of view in our 50 states ought to express themselves. And I'm not saying that rule would apply in general, depending on the topic, but it should mostly be in general, because it's hard to have it on issues that you just are interested in when you deny it for others with a different point of view.
- So you would be OK with the Supreme Court leaving the question of interracial marriage to the states?
- Yes. I think that that's something that, if you're not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you're not going to be able to have your cake and eat it too. I think that's hypocritical.
- About Griswold v Connecticut?
- You can list a whole host of issues. When it comes down to whatever they are, I'm going to say that they're not going to all make you happy within a given state. But we're better off having states manifest their points of view rather than homogenizing it across the country, as Roe versus Wade did.
