Scalia: ‘Don’t Paint Me As Anti-Gay’
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Thursday night told an audience he doesn’t want to be labeled “anti-gay.”
At George Washington University Lisner Auditorium Thursday night, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told the audience of about 1400 people that he doesn’t want to be called “anti-gay,” “anti-abortion,” or anti-anything.
The 78-year old Roman Catholic, who, analyses show to be among the most conservative on today’s court, shared the stage with his colleague, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
When the talk turned to marriage equality, an issue before the court, Justice Ginsburg shared her thoughts of how the nation came so quickly to embrace expanding the institution to same-sex couples.
“My own view of it is that people who once hid what they were have announced to the world this is who I am,†she said, according to the Washington Blade.
“And we looked to see who they are. They turned out to be our next door neighbor of whom we’re very fond. They turned out to be our child’s best friend – perhaps even our child,†she said. “I think that accounts for the very swift change.â€
Scalia, who may be best-remembered one day for his Lawrence v. Texas dissent (which in a way paved the road for same-sex marriage) tried to frame the debate as not one of substance – whether same-sex marriage is right or wrong, should be legal or not – but rather on of who gets to decide.
“The issue of gay rights, on abortion, on many of the issues in which Ruth’s opinions and mine differ does not pertain to the substance,†Scalia told the audience. “It doesn’t pertain to whether gay people ought to have those rights or whether there ought to be a constitutional right or a right to an abortion,†he said. “That isn’t the issue. The issue is who decides.â€Â
“That’s all. I don’t have any public views on any of those things. The point is who decides? Should these decisions be made by the Supreme Court without any text in the Constitution or any history in the Constitution to support imposing on the whole country or is it a matter left to the people?†the jurist asked.
“But don’t paint me as anti-gay or anti-abortion or anything else,†he added. “All I’m doing on the Supreme Court is opining about who should decide.â€
Scalia, who calls himself a textualist, is responsible for the claim that the Constitution should be interpreted not as a living document, but only with what the words on the document’s page say specifically – much as religious extremists read the bible.Â
Justice Ginsburg managed to redirect Scalia’s attempt to re-frame the conversation, noting that the American people have already decided.
“It isn’t the Supreme Court that is deciding for the whole society like an imperial ruler. There hasn’t been any major change in which there wasn’t a groundswell among the people before the Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on the inclusion in the equality concept of people who were once left out,†she told her colleague.
Some on Twitter were quick to rebut Justice Scalia.
Scalia painted himself as anti-gay –> ‘Don’t paint me as anti-gay’ says Scalia http://t.co/hl5CzXNTO5 via @washblade
— Joe Sudbay (@JoeSudbay) February 13, 2015
Fine, I’ll draw. //MT @chrisjohnson82: ‘Don’t paint me as anti-gay,’ Antonin Scalia says at G. Washington University http://t.co/yJ5dJ0hYqz
— Jeremy Hooper (@goodasyou) February 13, 2015
Scalia whitewashes his record of bias. MT @chrisjohnson82: ‘Don’t paint me as anti-gay,’ Scalia says at GW University http://t.co/pgMWCRXOjf
— Richard Rosendall (@RickRosendall) February 13, 2015
Friday comedy routine: Scalia doesn’t think he’s anti-gay. Seriously. h/t @kyjl89,@chrisjohnson82: http://t.co/6CNwaGCaKk
— Robbie Medwed (@rjmedwed) February 13, 2015
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Image via Flickr
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President Donald Trump is reportedly suing Rupert Murdoch and Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, over the publication of a story alleging he sent a “bawdy” birthday letter in 2003 to Jeffrey Epstein, the now-notorious convicted sex offender who died in 2019.
“Court records show that Trump filed a lawsuit alleging libel against Murdoch, the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones, and the reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida,” CNBC reported late Friday afternoon.
Trump vehemently denied the Journal’s report and publicly threatened to sue after it was published. The Journal had reported in its story that Trump had warned he would take legal action if the story ran.
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Thursday night. “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his a– off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT”
READ MORE: FBI Told to Flag Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files, Dem Says in Scathing Letter to Bondi
Image via Reuters
One thousand employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sifting through thousands of pages of the Epstein files were instructed to flag any mentions of President Donald Trump, according to Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee.
“According to information my office received,” Senator Durbin wrote in a letter (below) to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday, “you…pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel…on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline.”
“My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned,” Durbin charged.
The files are from the criminal investigation into the notorious Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of child sex offenses.
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In his letter, Senator Durbin also posed a series of more than a dozen questions to Bondi. Among them:
“Have you personally reviewed all files in DOJ’s possession related to Jeffrey Epstein?”
“The records DOJ released on February 27 did not include a client list. Why did you
publicly claim on February 21 that the client list was ‘sitting on my desk right now to review’?”
“Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned?”
“Please list all political appointees and senior DOJ officials involved in the decision to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned.”
“What happened to the records mentioning President Trump once they were flagged?”
CNBC reported that “Durbin asked the Justice Department and FBI to explain what his office called ‘apparent discrepancies’ regarding handling of the Epstein files and findings from a Justice Department memo.”
In his four-page letter, Durbin also wrote, “in 2002, Mr. Trump said of Mr. Epstein, ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’ Just yesterday, it was reported that the Department previously reviewed a ‘leather-bound album’ comprised of dozens of letters from Mr. Epstein’s friends in celebration of his 50th birthday in 2003.”
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“The letters were collected by Mr. Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell and included one from President Trump that allegedly ‘contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker … and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist.'”
“Despite tens of thousands of personnel hours reviewing and re-reviewing these Epstein- related records over the course of two weeks in March, it took DOJ more than three additional months to officially find there is ‘no incriminating ‘client list,’ and the memorandum with this finding includes no mention of the whistleblower or additional documents, the existence of which you publicly claimed on February 27.”
Read a copy of Senator Durbin’s letter below or at this link.
Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino have made a mess of the Epstein files.
It’s time to clear it up once and for all for the American people. pic.twitter.com/WQw13gmf1F
— Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryDems) July 18, 2025
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Image via Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after cutting 1,300 employees last week, is now ordering diplomats to not comment on foreign elections and internal affairs—limiting official communications to congratulating the declared winner.
“Rubio has instructed U.S. diplomats not to comment on the legitimacy or fairness of foreign elections, breaking with decades of American diplomatic practice,” The Daily Beast reports. In a memo, the Secretary stated that U.S. missions will no longer issue election-related statements unless there is a “clear and compelling” foreign policy reason for doing so.
“Diplomatic personnel writing official messages are instead instructed to ask themselves: ‘Would the President say this?'”
The memo, seen by Reuters, says the messages “should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.”
READ MORE: ‘He’s So Frustrated’: Johnson Defends Trump Over Explosive Epstein Birthday Letter
The memo makes clear, based on President Trump’s remarks, that the U.S. will “pursue partnerships with countries wherever our strategic interests align,” regardless of democratic values.
U.S. promotion of human rights, democracy, and press freedoms has traditionally been a “core foreign policy objective,” Reuters reported.
“Under Trump, the administration has increasingly moved away from the promotion of democracy and human rights, largely seeing it as interference in another country’s affairs.”
The Washington Post adds that for “decades, the United States has offered judgments on whether elections were conducted in a free or fair matter [sic], a judgment that can have significant impact in countries.”
“Scholars have accused the United States of democratic backsliding since Trump, who refused to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, returned to office this year.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have defended right-wing and far-right political groups, including Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which reportedly has ties to right-wing extremists.
Secretary Rubio in May ignited a “spat” with Germany’s foreign ministry when it “hit back…after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a ‘right-wing extremist’ organization,” the Associated Press reported at the time.
READ MORE: ‘War Is Peace’: White House’s Navarro Mocked Over Claim Tariffs Are ‘Tax Cuts’
Image via Reuters
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FBI Told to Flag Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files, Dem Says in Scathing Letter to Bondi
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