DOMA Repeal in Peril as Antonin Scalia Defends Conservative Writings at Princeton

Impact

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended what some consider anti-gay writings at Princeton University on Monday, reported Yahoo News.  

The opinions put Scalia on the spot with some students. According to Yahoo, a gay student asked the justice "why he equates laws banning sodomy with those barring bestiality and murder."

"I don't think it's necessary, but I think it's effective," Scalia said. He also added "legislative bodies can ban what they believe to be immoral."

Scalia's visit to Princeton, just days after the Court agreed to take on two cases that challenge the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), was actually to promote his new book Reading Law

"It's a form of argument that I thought you would have known, which is called the 'reduction to the absurd [...] if we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?" Scalia said during the Q&A period, before clarifying he is not actually equating sodomy with murder but rather "drawing a parallel between the bans on both."

He then was accused by one of the students of "dehumanizing gays." 

Scalia also referred to the Constitution during the event, contradicting those who think it is a 'living document that changes with the times.' 

"It isn't a living document [...] it's dead, dead, dead, dead," he said. 

Read more on Yahoo News.