Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with

BY Andrew Jones
The Raw Story
17 December 2011

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down from Thursday’s Fox News debate on his vow to abolish federal courts if he disagreed with their decision.

According to The Hill, in a conference call with reporters, Gingrich indicated that it was in the president’s power as commander-in-chief to deem any Supreme Court ruling irrelevant if he or she in the White House disagreed.

The former House Speaker used the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bush administration exceeding its constitutional authority in handling suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2008 as a basis for his extreme view.

“They just ignored it,” he said. “A commander-in-chief could simply issue instructions to ignore it, and say it’s null and void and I do not accept it because it infringes on my duties as commander-in-chief to protect the country.”

Gingrich also backed his position to subpoena judges or abolish courts entirely if he thought their final rulings were wrong.

The current GOP frontrunner’s position challenges the landmark Supreme Court case of Marbury v Madison in 1803, where America’s highest court would be granted the final word on whether acts by the president or Congress are constitutional.