Santorum: DOMA Ruling an 'Outrageous Abuse of Power'

Calling it "an outrageous abuse of power by the court," former Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the Supreme Court's DOMA ruling, along with others, open the door for "raw brute force" from the high court and the White House, and people on both sides of the political aisle should be scared.

"I wish I could say this is the first time I’ve seen the court do it, but two things happened over the last week that really should send shivers down the spine of freedom-loving Americans," Santorum tells Newsmax TV.

President Barack Obama's speech on climate change and the court striking down tenets of the federal Defense of Marriage Act drew Santorum's scorn.

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Obama essentially said he doesn't care what the majority of Americans think, he's "going to force it on the country irrespective of what the law says," Santorum said. The next day, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority in the DOMA decision, said anyone who doesn't support a changing definition of marriage "is a hater, is irrational, is someone who simply wants to discriminate against somebody else," Santorum said.

Santorum said he predicted the United States would see gay marriage within a decade in 2003 when the Supreme Court struck down Lawrence v. Texas, making sexual intercourse legal between members of the same sex. At the time, people told him his arguments were ridiculous and that gay marriage would never happen.

"I haven't been that far off," Santorum said. If the court continues on its present course, it eventually will establish a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, making it legal in all 50 states, he said.

"That, to me, will put the death nail in it."

Still, he holds out hope that as the issue is debated, defenders of traditional marriage will win out. Much like Roe v. Wade in which the battle has not died decades later, Santorum believes that when people begin to see the impact of the ruling on society, things will turn around.

On the issue of immigration reform, Santorum says if he were still in the Senate he would have joined the 32 Republicans who voted against it on Thursday. He blamed those GOP members who voted with Democrats for fearing election results.

"Every time the media stirs up a pot or we have a tough election, we immediately … become more like the other side and buy into their rhetoric and their view of how we should run this country," Santorum said. "This is not going to be a good news story for a lot of people in this country who are going to see wages depressed and potentially lose jobs."

Santorum prefers a more rational legal immigration policy which encourages the "best and brightest" to immigrate and assimilate with American culture.

Santorum was recently named CEO of Echo Light Studios, a faith and family film production company. He said he is looking forward to being involved in influencing the popular culture from outside politics.

"I thought it would be a great thing to do from the standpoint of trying to impact the culture and a great thing to do to help the country and a great opportunity to get some experience in managing a company and bringing it to its success," Santorum said.

On other issues Santorum said:

• Abortion: "What happened in the Texas Legislature (when a crowd in the gallery succeeded in stopping a vote to ban abortion after 20 weeks) is really just another example of how extreme those on the other side of this issue are. … They filibustered this bill that does that and provides basic sanitary standards for abortion clinics, things that you would want any medical facility to have as far as sterilization and cleanliness. … This is the extreme nature of this right that was created out of whole cloth by the United States Supreme Court and I'm glad that Gov. Perry has fought back, scheduled another special session, and I fully expect that bill to pass and become law."

• The Edward Snowden NSA leaker case: "The president's handling this the way he handles almost every international crisis, which is just sort of sit back and let America get pushed around and be indecisive, threaten things and then not follow through with things, use tough language without any tough actions. … our adversaries do not fear us, they are not concerned about what we believe or what we want, and our enemies do not trust us because we're not reliable allies to stand with them and behind them. "

• The IRS scandal: "This is a rogue organization. … this organization has proven that it is not responsive to any kind of oversight. It's irretrievable in any quest to try to reform it. And, as a result, I've joined the chorus to repeal the 16th Amendment. We have to get rid of an income tax … and we have to go back to a system like we had before … where we had excise taxes and taxes on comsumption as a way to fund the federal government."