Tuesday, December 11, 2012

"SCOTUS" UPDATE (Supreme Court of the United States): SCALIA COMPARES SODOMY TO MURDER

Attorney Charles Jerome Ware is renowned and consistently ranked among the best attorneys and legal counsellors in the United States. [GQ Magazine, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Columbia Flier, USA TODAY, The Howard County Sun, The Anniston Star, The New York Times, et al.]

Admittedly using the "form of argument... called the 'reduction to the absurd'," in an appearance at Princeton University on Monday, December 10th, 2012, SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia defended his dissent in the 2003 Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, Docket No. 02-102, 459 U.S. 558 (2003), which overturned a Sodomy ban.

Scalia’s dissent had called the majority decision in Lawrence v. Texas "a massive disruption of the current social order." Scalia said the Texas ban on sodomy was an expression of Texas citizens’ beliefs about morality, “the same interest furthered by criminal laws against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality and obscenity.” Scalia said the Supreme Court’s justification for overturning the sodomy law could call into question laws banning gay marriage, and the majority had "largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda."

At the Princeton appearance, a student who identified himself as gay asked how Scalia can compare moral objections to sodomy with moral objections to things such as bestiality or murder.

Scalia said his comparisons are intended to make a point. "It's a form of argument that I thought you would have known, which is called the 'reduction to the absurd,' " Scalia said. "If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?"

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank once called Scalia a “homophobe” in a 2009 interview in which he said that at some point the U.S. Supreme Court will have to review the Defense of Marriage Act barring federal benefits for married same-sex couples. His prediction proved true on Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court accepted a challenge to the law along with a separate case challenging California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

Scalia has been giving speeches around the country to promote his new book, "Reading Law."

In response to those who proclaim that the U.S. Constitution is a "living document", Justice Scalia is well-known for responding: "It isn't a living document. It's dead, dead, dead."

[see, Lawrence, et al. v. Texas, No. 02-102, 539 U.S. 558 (2003); Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986); www.abajournal.com/news/ "Scalia Explains Why He Compares Sodomy Bans To Murder Laws"/ 12-11-2012; Associated Press, 12-11-2012/ "Antonin Scalia Defends Legal Writings Some View As Offensive, Anti-Gay", www.law.cornell.edu/supct/htm/02-102.ZD.html]

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