WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says the United States should rethink the notion that a president must enforce laws the Supreme Court declares constitutional.
Carson said Sunday “we need to discuss” the court’s long-held power to review laws passed by Congress. That authority was established in the 1803 landmark case Marbury v. Madison.
Carson was asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether the executive branch is obligated to enforce laws that the Supreme Court declares constitutional.
“We need to get into a discussion of this because it has changed from the original intent,” he said.
Carson has said a president is obliged to carry out laws passed by Congress, but not what he called “judicial laws” that emanate from courts.
On a different topic, Carson said he would not rule out military force against Russia, but it should be used only if the United States’ safety were clearly at risk.
“I would, obviously, do that in consultation with very competent generals and people who are more knowledgeable in that area than I would be,” said Carson, who has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a bully. “But, clearly, if the interest and the existence and the safety of the people of the United States was at stake — and that was the only way to protect them — of course, I would do whatever was necessary.”
Carson is a former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions who has not held elected office.
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