What Scalia Really Wants
Oh, Nino Scalia, you rascal. He has recently come under fire for "compar[ing] sodomy to murder." As usual, people are missing the subtlety of the original argument (much same way people mischaracterized the politically foolish comments by Republicans that bad things--e.g. rape--are part of God's plan). In this case, a gay student asked Justice Scalia why he compares homosexuality to murder. Scalia was a bit too playful in response. As a result, people misunderstand his point. The short answer is that he doesn't compare the two in terms of morality. He compares the legislature's power to ban either or both. That's different. We have to move beyond a fact to fact comparison. Scalia is not saying that homosexuality is as morally repugnant as murder. His argument is more nuanced than that. He is saying that we ban murder for moral reasons. Sure, killing someone probably has some negative utilitarian outcome or exerts long-term downward pressure o