Thursday, April 14, 2005

Interesting Thought

It seems that Scalia appeared at NYU this week to speak to students and faculty:

The room was packed with some 300 students and there were many protesters outside because of Scalia's vitriolic dissent last year in the case that overturned the Texas law against gay sex ... One gay student asked whether government had any business enacting and enforcing laws against consensual sodomy. Following Scalia's answer, the student asked a follow-up: 'Do you sodomize your wife?' The audience was shocked, especially since Mrs. Scalia [Maureen] was in attendance. The justice replied that the question was unworthy of an answer. [NYPost]
On its face, i do agree that the question was inappropriate. However, it gets to the REAL meat of the matter. This gay man doesn't like the idea of the government inquiring about his sexual activities so that it can pass judgement and mete out punishment for those activities. This question, to Justice Scalia was so inappropriate that it did not dignify the an answer. That is a question, on the other hand, that he would allow the government to ask--daily. Of course, he--as a straight, married man--never has to worry about the issue. The government would never inquire into his sexual life and he's quite happy with that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting for sure. If Scalia were asked to explain such a blatant double standard, what would he possibly say? "It's god's will"? "I'm normal, you're not"? "Nanny-nanny boo-boo"? I can't imagine anyone formulating a rationale for this that's not totally dismissive and smug. Which, I guess, is Scalia in a nutshell.

KoE