SAN FRANCISCO, Kalifornia - September 19, 2010 - In comments foreshadowing how he might rule on the issue of homosexual marriage, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said he believes the U.S. Constitution doesn't provide protection from discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation.
Scalia, a Reagan appointee considered to be a conservative stalwart on the bench, told an audience at UC Hastings Law School in San Francisco, that the court's recognition of a constitutional right to privacy - the basis of Roe v. Wade - is a "total absurdity," the San Francisco Chroinicle reports.
In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled in Griswold v. Connecticut that a state ban on contraceptives was unconstitutional because it violated the "right to marital privacy." That ruling set the basis for Roe v. Wade, in which the court overturned bans on abortion on the grounds that they violated privacy.
Scalia has long advocated overturning Roe v. Wade, though it's believed the court wouldn't have enough votes to overturn it in a direct challenge.