Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina is backing the Supreme Court’s dissenting justices who said Friday’s decision affirming same-sex marriage was a mistake.
“We are witnessing here something very important and frankly concerning,” Fiorina told a forum in Colorado hosted by the coal industry and the news organization RealClearPolitics.
RELATED: Complete coverage of the gay marriage ruling
She said Friday’s decision by the high court would label anyone who doesn’t agree with it “as bigots.”
Carl Cannon, Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics, got the response by asking Fiorina why her fellow GOP candidates don’t support same-sex marriage, when she supported it while serving in the private sector as a CEO.
Fiorina fired back: “Let me correct you…I support civil unions.”
Fiorina said she doesn’t think the government can deny rights and benefits to those in civil unions. “On the other hand, marriage means something specific…for thousands of years,” and it is “not the purview of five people…to think in their hubris that they have the power to change that,” she said.
She said millions of people disagree with the decision. Just think of the power dynamic at work, she said. “We have five justices that come out and say we know better.”
She said she stood with the dissenting justices in admonishing the majority decision.
“I stand with Justice [Samuel] Alito,” Fiorina said. Alito said in his dissent that the Constitution says nothing about a right to gay marriage.
She said Alito said the decision was based on “shoddy legal reasoning.” And Justice John Roberts dissented by saying, “Who do we think we are?” she said.
The high court ruled 5-4 that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right.
In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “I write separately to call attention to this court’s threat to American democracy.”
The decision came a day after the court affirmed President Obama’s healthcare law.
Fiorina said if she becomes president she will “repeal” Obamacare and “replace it.”
