Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, considered the most conservative member of the nation’s highest court, endorsed orgies earlier this week during a speech at Harvard. Or at least, he appears to have done so.
Scalia, a Harvard Law School graduate, had been invited to present a lecture at the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics at Harvard University on Tuesday.
During his prepared remarks, Scalia discussed “judicial activism,” a pejorative term used by political conservatives when asserting that judges who deem bans on abortion, gay marriage and other issues to be unconstitutional, thus negating laws written to prevent such activities, are overstepping their authority.
Conservatives often argue that judges who rule against such laws are making decisions based on their personal beliefs, rather than relying on the law.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the college’s newspaper, Scalia stated that his personal views on social issues were not a factor in his courtroom decisions.
Immediately afterward, Scalia is quoted as saying, “I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged.
“But it is blindingly clear that judges have no greater capacity than the rest of us to decide what is moral.”
The Crimson failed to note any intended sarcasm on Scalia’s part, and the quote began appearing on various blogs, even conservative ones, with commentators expressing some confusion regarding the statement’s intent.
Earlier today, the Crimson article was linked by the Drudge Report, generating enough buzz that the Associated Press wrote an article about Tuesday’s speech, brushing off Scalia’s comments as jokes.
Scalia himself has not clarified his remark, and the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office did not return calls from AVN.com seeking comment earlier today. AVN.com was told, however, that Justice Scalia does not release transcripts of his speeches to the public.
The article at the Crimson remains unaltered, and no clarifications have been issued.
