GOP candidates tend to talk a good game about the Constitution. Too often, that’s all it is — talk.

Take the political forum that was held at Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa last Friday, sponsored by the conservative Christian group Family Leader.

The GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate seat who appeared there said things that are so at odds with the Constitution, it’s hard to believe that they’ve actually read it, or that they’ve understood that the United States isn’t supposed to be a freakin’ theocracy.

Three of the candidates vowed they would block federal judge nominees who did not adhere to “natural law,” which the candidates described as handed down by God. Radio host and retired Air Force colonel Sam Clovis said he would use natural law as a “litmus test” for judges, while Sarah Palin-backed state Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Red Oak) said judges and senators should understand U.S. laws “come from God” and make their decisions “within that criteria.” But Matt Whitaker, a former federal prosecutor, declared his opponents had not gone “far enough” and said he would demand federal judicial nominees be “people of faith” who “have a biblical view of justice.” “As long as they have that worldview, then they’ll be a good judge,” Whitaker said. “If they have a secular worldview, where this is all we have here on earth, then I’m going to be very concerned about how they judge.”

Remember the Iowa forum next time you hear a blowhard on the right condemn “judicial activism” or “legislating from the bench.”

Apparently, it’s not an outrage if their side does it.

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