After laying out a three-point plan to protect religious liberty that he would implement should he be elected president Tuesday, Mike Huckabee explained to radio host Steve Deace that hate crime protections should also apply to those who oppose gay marriage. 

Huckabee has been outspoken about his disagreement with the Supreme Court's pivotal ruling last Friday, declaring on his website that he would not "acquiesce to an imperial court." Speaking to Deace Wednesday, Huckabee explained that as president he would issue an executive order announcing the goal of fully protecting religious liberty "at all levels," as well as direct the secretary of defense to allow chaplains and provide them the freedom to "practice their faith as it is, not as it is desired by people who support same-sex marriage."

But his plan's most notable component would be that he would instruct the U.S. attorney general to prosecute as hate crimes those who extort or commit crimes against individuals, organizations, or businesses for their deeply held religious beliefs about marriage:

The second thing I would do is I would issue a directive to the attorney general and I would insist that everyone’s religious liberty be vigorously defended. That there be no allowance for people to have their businesses shut down and that those who would attempt to extort from them or anyone who committed a crime against a person because they didn’t accept homosexual marriage could be prosecuted for a hate crime.

Huckabee also took a few swipes at the Supreme Court justices who supported the ruling, blasting Justice Anthony Kennedy (who wrote the majority opinion) for infusing his "New Age" spirituality by using words like "intimacy" and "spirituality" as "a sort of ex cathedra constitutional basis" for legalizing gay marriage. As for Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Huckabee said they should have "recused themselves" because they have both officiated same-sex weddings.  

Here is the complete interview. 

Partial transcript via BuzzFeed.