Justice Scalia Hints Supreme Court Will Take A Same-Sex Marriage Case
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia toyed with University of Colorado students this week about when — or if — the nation’s highest court will take up a same-sex marriage case.Â
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent Wednesday in Colorado, addressing students at a conservative Christian college and at the University of Colorado. The longest-serving member of the Supreme Court rattled many Americans when he announced that there’s nothing in the Constitution that states government cannot favor one religion over another, or religion as a whole over secularism.
But Scalia also made news when he responded to questions about same-sex marriage.Â
On Monday, the Court met in a closed door secret conference, as they do several times a year, to discuss which cases to hear, or to grant certiorari. Many court watchers on both sides of the debate had hoped the Court would announce it was granting certiorari to one of five same-sex marriage cases, but it did not. The Court also did not state it will not hear any of the cases, and analysts expect the court to hear at least one, probably this year.
Scalia was asked by students at the University of Colorado when the Court might take up a same-sex marriage case.
“I know when, but I’m not going to tell you,†the Wall Street Journal reports he replied. “Soon! Soon!†he added.
Scalia, according to the Daily Camera, also reportedly told students that “homosexual sodomy,” along with the death penalty, abortion, and assisted suicide, are not even “remotely close” to the nation’s “most pressing questions.”
Kristen Wyatt, a reporter for the AP, live-tweeted some of Scalia’s remarks:
Asked when SCOTUS will consider same-sex marriage, Scalia says: “I know when, but I’m not going to tell you. (crowd laughs) Soon! Soon!”
— Kristen Wyatt (@APkristenwyatt) October 2, 2014
Scalia: “We have lost the perception… that the laws have a moral, a moral claim, to our obedience”
— Kristen Wyatt (@APkristenwyatt) October 1, 2014
Scalia: “Under my constitution, the death penalty is not unconstitutional.” Says people in 1790s didn’t find death penalty cruel, unusual
— Kristen Wyatt (@APkristenwyatt) October 1, 2014
Scalia argues that US never gave 9 judges the right to rewrite the constitution. Jokes that we’d never such power to 6 Catholics, 3 Jews
— Kristen Wyatt (@APkristenwyatt) October 2, 2014
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Image via Flickr
Hat top:Â Joe Jervis
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Related At The New Civil Rights Movement:
Scalia Unleashes Religious Attack: ‘Traditional Christian Virtues Are Essential’
Scalia: Supreme Court Shouldn’t ‘Invent New Minorities’ For ‘Special Protections’
Scalia: US Nearing Nazi Germany, Supreme Court Unqualified To Rule On ‘Homosexual Sodomy’
Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s Seven Worst Anti-Gay Statements
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