At a speaking engagement at Washington’s American Enterprise Institute this week, Justice Antonin Scalia was just being himself as he made several off-hand remarks about how easy it would be, constitutionally, to justify bans on "homosexual sodomy" and abortion. He is aware, right, that sodomy isn't just a gay thing?
Salon picked up the quotes in which Scalia was rattling off what he considers judicial no-brainers, from a textualist standpoint. He did it in his usual glib manner, which enrages liberals far and wide:
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.
He suggests that anyone who's unhappy with the fact that the Constitution doesn't protect or outlaw these things should get an amendment drafted and passed by the nation, or should appeal to their elected officials, not the court. So, in other words, nothing has changed in his world, but whenever he opens his mouth there is bound to be blowback.
[Salon]