By Ian Duncan

March 26, 2012, 10:46 a.m.

Reporting from Washington—
Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum appeared at the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon to declare as president he would seek to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law, arguing that only the “creator” can grant rights, not the government.

Santorum said that if he is elected president, he will have a clear mandate to repeal the healthcare legislation passed in 2010, and he added that he believes the reforms are unconstitutional.

“If we’re successful it will be very clear where the American public is,” Santorum said.

Santorum’s remarks were at times almost drowned out by supporters of the health care law, who have been holding rallies since early this morning outside the court. They chanted that health care is a human right, but Santorum argued that no rights should come from the government.

"Rights come from our creator, they are protected by the Constitution of this country. Rights should not and cannot be created by a government because any time a government creates a right, they can take that right away," Santorum said.

The rights included in the U.S. Constitution were put there by men, all of whom were delegates to the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787.

Santorum, a devout Catholic and former Pennsylvania senator, also took aim at GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, arguing that the former Massachusetts governor’s support for reforms in that state hurt his credibility when taking on Obamacare.

“There’s only one candidate who has a chance of winning the Republican nomination who can make this the central issue, a winning issue for winning the presidency back and that’s Rick Santorum,” he said. “Unfortunately the worst person to make that case is Mitt Romney.”

“All he says was, I’ll repeal Obamacare and in the same breath he defends Obamacare at the state level. It just doesn’t wash and it won’t wash in the general election,” Santorum said.

Santorum spoke in front of signs emblazoned with the slogan “Better Health, More Freedom”, which aides dutifully turned so he would appear in front of the court’s columns, but he stopped short of outlining a comprehensive plan of his own.

He did say, however, “I’ve always been for free market healthcare.”

Ian.duncan@latimes.com

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Original source: Lashing at healthcare, Santorum says only ‘creator’ can grant rights