Dissenting from
this morning's opinion on the Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Antonin Scalia –
as expected – holds nothing back.
In a ripping
dissent, Scalia says that Justice Anthony Kennedy and his colleagues in the
majority have resorted to calling opponents of gay marriage "enemies of
the human race."
But to defend traditional
marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other
arrangements, any more than to defend the Constitution of the United States is
to con-demn, demean, or humiliate other constitutions. To hurl such accusations
so casually demeans this institution. In the majority's judgment, any
resistance to its holding is beyond the pale of reasoned disagreement. To
question its high-handed invalidation of a presumptively valid statute is to
act (the majority is sure) with the purpose to "dis-parage,"
"injure," "degrade," "demean," and
"humiliate" our fellow human beings, our fellow citizens, who are
homo- sexual. All that, simply for supporting an Act that did no more than
codify an aspect of marriage that had been unquestioned in our society for most
of its existence— indeed, had been unquestioned in virtually all societies for
virtually all of human history. It is one thing for a society to elect change;
it is another for a court of law to impose change by adjudging those who oppose
it hostes humani generis, enemies of the human race.
Scalia says that
the court's holding – while limited to the Defense of Marriage Act – is a sure
sign that the majority is willing to declare gay marriage a constitutional
right…..To Read More……
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