Speaking at Princeton University, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was asked why he equates laws banning sodomy with those barring bestiality and murder. The question comes as the court prepares to consider America’s contested Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), defining marriage as an exclusively heterosexual compact. As reported in HuffPost Gay Voices,
“’I don’t think it’s necessary, but I think it’s effective,’ Scalia said, adding that legislative bodies can ban what they believe to be immoral. Scalia has been giving speeches around the
country to promote his new book, “Reading Law,” and his lecture at Princeton comes just days after the court agreed to take on two cases that challenge DOMA.
“Some in the audience who had come to hear Scalia speak about his book applauded but more of those who attended the lecture clapped at freshman Duncan Hosie’s question. ‘It’s a form of argument that I thought you would have known, which is called the `reduction to the absurd,’’ Scalia told Hosie of San Francisco during the question-and-answer period. ‘If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?’
“Scalia said he is not equating sodomy with murder but drawing a parallel between the bans on both. Then he deadpanned: ‘I’m surprised you aren’t persuaded.’”
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