Antonin Scalia Calls Gays an "Invented Minority"

Some describe Antonin Scalia as the "intellectual leader" of the conservative faction on the U. S. Supreme Court.  Candidly, a close minded, bigoted old grump who wants the Constitution to conform to his own prejudices is a more apt description of the man.  Now, speaking a meeting sponsored by the Federalist Society, Scalia is describing and once again arguing  the rights of minorities should be left to the whims - or more correctly, the tyranny - of the majority.  gays as an "invented minority" As I have noted before, the man needs to retire or be removed from the Court.  Here are highlights from Talking Points Memo:

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.

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.

 Per the Billings Gazette this also:

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.”

Many of his comments centered on his cause of interpreting the “original meaning” of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, which he said spell out clearly defined rights that should not be embellished by the courts.

“I’m just pointing out what happens when you don’t stick to the original meaning of the Constitution,” he said. “The court makes an amazing amount of decisions that ought to be made by the people.”

Let's be clear, Scalia believes in the tyranny of the majority - unless, of course, it differs with his own bigotry.