Mann opens his column by stating:
Almost every semester in one of my courses at LSU, I discuss Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. There's a passage, however, that we always overlook: "I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of 'interposition' and 'nullification' -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."
I've never stopped to explain what King meant by "interposition" and "nullification." Perhaps I should, because my students and the rest of us may soon hear those words – or ones much like them – from Gov. Bobby Jindal if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that anti-same-sex marriage laws violate the U.S. Constitution.
Mann argues that Jindal is not the only person apparently or officially running for president who strongly oppose gay marriage. However, as a sitting governor, he has power to try to do something about it unlike others who oppose but who are out of office and can only speak rhetorically, not with action.
Mann also points out that Jindal already has attempted to nullify federal legislation such as the Affordable Care Act and is aligned with some strong advocates of states rights or the movement of the Convention of States.
Read Mann’s Friday blog and the balance on NOLA.com
{snippet 222}