Scalia Reveals His Current Thinking on Gay Marriage (and Murder)
"If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?" Yes, that's what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia asked Princeton students late Monday afternoon. And, yes, that's the word "murder" in there. "Scalia said he is not equating sodomy with murder but drawing a parallel between the bans on both," reports the AP's Geoff Mulvihill, but he may be guilty of taking us down a path we've heard before: morality flies out the window, goes Scalia's thinking, if two gay people get married. "I don't think it's necessary but I think it’s effective," Scalia said in reaction to a gay student's question about his dissent in a ruling that struck down Texas's anti-sodomy law, reports The Daily Princetonian, adding, "I'm surprised you weren't persuaded."
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While Scalia may not have been directly comparing murder and homosexuality Monday, he has equated homosexuality with things like abortion and the death penalty. Scalia told the American Enterprise Institute this past October:
The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.
Of course the big picture here is that Scalia and his fellow justices will be hearing arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 next Spring and will determine if same-sex marriages and benefits on the state level will be recognized by the government and if gay people in California can marry, respectively. Considering the split between the two blocs, Court watchers are anticipating a close vote, with Anthony Kennedy as a possible being swing vote. For now, there seems to be no question how Scalia will rule.
