In a speech to the Federalist Society in Bozeman, Montana yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia called gays an "invented minority" when he referenced recent rulings on same-sex marriage, the AP reports:
“It's not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get special protections,” Scalia told a packed hotel ballroom in southwestern Montana.
The Supreme Court earlier this year cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California and struck down part of a federal law that prevents legally married gay couples from receiving benefits. Scalia voted against the majority of justices.
Changes to the Constitution were made to protect minorities and to give women the right to vote, but that's not how the court operates today, he said. Rather, a majority of five judges decide issues that should be in the hands of Congress or made through a change to the Constitution.
The Billings Gazette adds:
“We're now in an age when the high court's opinions speak of an evolving Constitution,” he said. “It means what it ought to mean. And who decides what it ought to mean?
“Nine lawyers. Actually five lawyers. What, are you crazy? Who would ever set up a system like that?”
Scalia, considered an intellectual leader of the Supreme Court's conservative wing, said the court's justices are no better suited to decide what rights ought to exist than is “Joe Sixpack.”
“These aren't questions for lawyers,” he said. “These are the kind of questions that society debates and decides.”
