Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday criticized the Supreme Court's
recent rulings related to gay marriage.
The decisions, handed down in June, paved the way for same-sex
marriages to resume in California and knocked down Section 3 of the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a key provision which prohibited
federal agencies from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and
lesbian couples.
According to the AP, Scalia, who dissented with the majority
opinion in the DOMA decision, said that Congress or the people –
not the courts – should decide such issues.
“It's not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get
special protections,” Scalia said during a gathering of more than
300 people sponsored by the Federalist Society.
The Federalist Society, which Scalia helped launch more than 30
years ago, seeks to reform the current American legal system to “say
what the law is, not what it should be.” Members believe in a
literal interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Scalia, 77, is a
self-described “textualist.”
As recently as June, Scalia publicly stated that the Constitution
does not protect gay sex, saying
that when judges find rights to “homosexual conduct” in the
Constitution, they are in error.