Don't know if anyone caught this on Mike Stark's blog, but Senator David Vitter was asked point blank:
Reporter: Was Loving vs. Virginia decided correctly by the Supreme Court of the United States?
Vitter: What is Loving vs. Virginia?
For those who don't know, Loving vs. Virginia isn't some obscure piece of case law tucked away for only the most dedicated law librarians. Loving is a LANDMARK case. The sort of case you learn in your first year of law school. Scratch that. It's the sort of case you learn about in any high school social studies class.
Stark:
Vitter graduated Tulane Law School in 1988. Loving v. Virginia, decided in 1967, was a unanimous Supreme Court decision that declared state anti-miscegenation (interracial marriage) laws unconstitutional. It is one of the bedrock civil rights cases, right up there with Brown. It is simply not credible for any lawyer to claim ignorance when asked about Loving.
But here's David Vitter, a Senator of the United States, member of the Louisiana Bar, saying he had never heard of it:
Stark: It was a case that decided once and for all that anti-miscegenation laws in the states, you know...a black can't marry a white, was illegal.
Vitter: I haven't read the case.
Stark: So yo don't know whether or not. Was that judicial activism?
Vitter: I have no idea cause I haven't read the case.
WHAT THE FUCK?!!! I don't mean to insult the fine people at Tulane Law School, which has certainly produced some very fine lawyers, but...WHAT. THE. FUCK? Loving is SO BASIC, you'd probably get it in any run of the mill paralegal course. I read it overnight in ConLaw.
But just go ahead and set that aside. When somebody asks you about interracial marriage, you can't get confused about your position. You don't need to read a Supreme Court case to know where you stand. It is so basic, so OBVIOUS, you can't possibly have an unclear position on it. But especially so if you are a lawyer from LOUISIANA. Or any part of the South for that matter.
Or, Senator Vitter knows full well what Loving is about. Maybe he wants to avoid, under any circumstances, upsetting the racist base of the Republican party.
Either way, no matter if he is a complete dumbass or a slimy bigot, Senator David Vitter should not be anywhere near a Senate Seat.
Lets help the people of Louisiana put in Charlie Melancon.