Scalia: Easy to Rule on Gay Rights, Abortion

With the court considering whether to hear cases on marriage equality, Justice Antonin Scalia says ruling on gay rights is a no-brainer.

With same-sex marriage likely to come before the U.S. Supreme Court this term, one of the court’s most conservative justices, Antonin Scalia, has left no doubt as to how he would rule.

Cases on gay rights and certain other controversial issues are no-brainers for Scalia, he told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., this week.

“The death penalty? Give me a break. It’s easy,” Scalia told the conservative group Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. “Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, part of the court’s liberal wing, said this week the court is likely to take up a case involving the Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. Several have been submitted. “I think it’s most likely that we will have that issue before the court toward the end of the current term,” she told an audience at the University of Colorado in Boulder Wednesday, the AP reports.

She said that was why she could not answer a student’s question about whether the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection provisions would apply to sexual orientation, explaining that she could not discuss issues that might come before the court.