Justice Antonin Scalia has a history of making deeply offensive comments about gay people, but he was fairly restrained during the highly anticipated gay marriage arguments this week.
Scalia did ask a lawyer, "When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?" But that statement was just a nod to his strict interpretation of the Constitution, which does not specify explicitly that gays get marriage equality.
His question wasn't nearly as offensive as his other comments about gays — from comparing gay couples to roommates to putting "homosexual conduct" in the same category as murder.
So, why was Scalia relatively restrained about a topic that he's always been so vocal about? It's possible he's trying to tone down his anti-gay remarks since he's starting to get a reputation for being a homopobe.
However, NPR's top legal correspondent Nina Totenberg has a different theory about why he was such a lamb on the bench this week:
Hear that coughing, sneezing, etc at same sex args? It's Scalia.Sotomayor gave him bug. she looked like hell last week. now he sounds it
— Nina Totenberg (@NinaTotenberg) March 28, 2013
Scalia might have been tougher if not so sick at same sex scotus args. Sotomayor had bug last week. So who is next?
— Nina Totenberg (@NinaTotenberg) March 28, 2013
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