He also was asked about the most wrenching decision since he’s been on the bench. “Well, is Obamacare too recent?” he asked to laughter.
In a story Aug. 19 about Justice Antonin Scalia’s speech in Montana, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Scalia dissented in both Supreme Court decisions involving gay marriage and benefits for same-sex couples. Scalia dissented in the Defense of Marriage Act decision but voted with the majority in ruling the court had not standing in the California gay marriage case.
A corrected version of the story is below:
[…]
The U.S. Supreme Court is making decisions that should be left to Congress or the people, from wiretapping to “inventing” new classes of minorities, Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday.
In an apparent reference to the court’s recent decisions on gay marriage and benefits for same-sex couples, Scalia said it is not the function of the courts to create exceptions outside the Constitution unless a majority of people agree with them.
“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 dissented in the Defense of Marriage Act ruling.
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.
[…]
