George Pataki, Rick Santorum spar over Kim Davis during debate

George Pataki and Rick Santorum.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

During CNN's early Republican debate, former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.) and former New York Gov. George Pataki clashed over Kim Davis and whether the Kentucky clerk should have been fired for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

After Pataki said he would fire Davis for defying a judge's order to issue the licenses, Santorum invoked Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," saying: "We have no obligation to condone and accept unjust laws. I would argue that what the Supreme Court did is against natural law [and] it's against God's law." Pataki fired back that if the president defies the Supreme Court because he doesn't agree with a decision, "then you don't have a rule of law."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.