By Paul Campos
Of course Scalia is biased against gaysbut thats not the real problem with his tactless homophobic screeds, writes Paul Campos.
Back in 2004, Justice Antonin Scalia was participating in a panel discussion at NYU Law School when the subject of his famously scathing dissent in Lawrence v. Texas came up. One year earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled in Lawrence that the Constitution prohibits criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults, overturning recent precedent and saying, effectively, that gay men and lesbians couldnt have their sex lives treated as criminal activity.
As he often is when the subject relates to gay rights, Scalia was furious, writing: so imbued is the Court with the law professions anti-anti-homosexual culture, that it is seemingly unaware that the attitudes of that culture are not obviously mainstream; that in most States what the Court calls discrimination against those who engage in homosexual acts is perfectly legal.
When the time came for audience questions, a student named Eric Berndt stood up in the packed auditorium and pressed Scalia to explain his dissent, particularly his opinion as to whether it was constitutional for the government to peer into the bedrooms of consenting adults and punish them for what goes on in there. When Scalia did not answer to the students satisfaction, Berndt asked him, Do you sodomize your wife?
It was a breathtaking moment (Scalia simply glowered at Berndt without responding), and it triggered days of news coverage and weeks of hot-blooded recriminations at law schools across the country. After the shock of the question had worn off, some criticized Berndt for being so disrespectful of an august public official, but a larger number of students spoke out in his defense.
In retrospect, that exchange, and the response to it, revealed a key weakness in Scalias continued stance regarding gay rights in America.
The justice has pushed that stance to the forefront again in recent days. His latest intemperate remarkscomparing laws against homosexuality to laws against murderhave whipped up the predictable firestorm, but hes made comments like this so often that some are asking whether he ought to recuse himself from participating in the Supreme Courts upcoming decisions on the matter.
More: Justice Antonin Scalia In Hot Water Again Over Homosexual Comments - The Daily Beast
Debriefing Scalia | The Nation