Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun says he thinks the U.S. Supreme Court had no right to mandate that interracial marriage had to be legal in all states and that each individual state should be able to decide on such issues without the interference of the courts.
According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, Braun said the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision that struck down state bans on interracial marriage, was a mistake:
“Braun initially limited his claim to the national right to abortion established by the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision he hopes the current, more conservative, Supreme Court will overturn in coming months when it rules in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But, when asked by The Times, Braun admitted there are many Supreme Court decisions he believes improperly established federal rights that would be better handled on a state-by-state basis, including Loving v. Virginia that legalized interracial marriage, and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) establishing a right to privacy concerning contraceptive use.”
Specifically, Braun commented:
“We’re better off having states manifest their points of view, rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did. This should be something where the expression of individual states are able to weigh-in on these issues through their own legislation, through their own court systems. Quit trying to put the federal government in charge.”
So now we have a Republican member of the Senate who is quite literally letting the mask slip and saying that if the state of Mississippi decides that blacks in their state cannot marry whites, they should have every right to do so.
Or, suppose the state of Indiana wants to say that same-sex couples have no right to marry or live together, they should also be allowed do to so because hey, state’s rights and all that stuff, the very same argument that was made for decades on the issue of slavery.
Fortunately, the reaction to Braun’s remarks was utter disgust and disdain, as it damn well should be:
Sen. Braun needs to go ahead and put his white hood back on. Sounds like he be much more comfortable that way.