The US Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage in its landmark Loving v. Virginia decision (1967), Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said at a March 22 press conference.

The Loving decision not only overturned scores of race-based state marriage laws, it also provided a legal precedent for the high court's later decision in Obergefell, legalizing same-sex marriage.

According to the Times of Northwest Indiana, Braun also opined that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided by the Supreme Court.

"When it comes to issues, you can't have it both ways," Braun said.

"When you want that diversity to shine within our federal system, there are going to be rules and proceedings, they're going to be out of sync with maybe what other states would do. It's the beauty of the system, and that's where the differences among points of view in our 50 states ought to express themselves."

The Times reporter then asked him if he thought other cases had been wrongly decided as well.

"You can list a whole host of issues," Braun said.

"When it comes down to whatever they are, I'm going to say they're not going to all make you happy within a given state. But we're better off having states manifest their points of view, rather than homogenizing it across the country as Roe v. Wade did."

"This should be something where the expression of individual states are able to weigh in on these issues through their own legislation, through their own court systems. Quit trying to put the federal government in charge," Braun added.

Pressed to name Supreme Court decisions he thought were better left to state law, Braun cited Loving v. Virginia and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the latter of which established a right to privacy concerning contraceptive use.

Braun's statement was quickly condemned by the Indiana Democratic Party as "not only un-American but beneath any respectable person wishing to hold public office."

"The United States Supreme Court has affirmed many times that marriage equality in our country extends to any committed couple regardless of sex, race, orientation, or religious affiliation, and to question that legitimacy questions the very fabric of America and its people," said Mike Schmuhl, Indiana Democratic chairman.

"Democrats implore all Hoosiers to ask themselves if they want to be associated with someone as embarrassing as Mike Braun and a form of partisanship that endorses white nationalist views — because these are the same views that led to the insurrection against our nation on January 6, 2021. If Mike Braun wants to question the legitimacy of anything, it should be his own standing as a United States senator."

According to the Indianapolis Star, Braun tried to walk back his remarks five hours after the presser, saying he'd "misunderstood" the reporter's question and joined all Americans in condemning racism.