Scalia on homosexual sodomy: It’s a ‘no-brainer’ to outlaw

Justice Scalia said that outlawing homosexual sodomy was a "no-brainer" based on a strict reading of the Constitution. 

Speaking at a book reading and lecture at Washington’s American Enterprise Institute this week, the Supreme Court justice called himself a "textualist," or someone who interprets the founding document as it was understood when it was written, the Associated Press reported. 

"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," Scalia said. 

This stance is likely to come into play as the Supreme Court is likely to take up a case about the Defense of Marriage Act.

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“I think it’s most likely that we will have that issue before the court toward the end of the current term,” liberal Justice Ruth Nader Ginsberg told reporters last week, the Advocate reported. 

As Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams writes, "Scalia’s breathtaking nonchalance doesn’t come as any huge surprise to anyone familiar with the Roe v. Wade–opposing, affirmative action–blocking, death penalty–loving Reagan appointee’s strict interpretation of the Constitution as an immutable template of American justice." 

The Justice advocates that politicians, not judges, are responsible for changing laws about abortion and the death penalty, the AP reported. He also said that lawmakers and voters can also try to change the Constitution if they want to see these cases decided differently, something Scalia nonetheless acknowledges is difficult.

According to Constitutional law, 38 states must ratify an amendment for it to take effect.