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Scalia on sex

Published Saturday, October 02, 2004 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

Isn't it always the publicly ultraconservative people who turn out to privately be the most sexually liberal partners? That does seem to be the rule. Does it apply to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia? That is the question to ponder this weekend after Scalia's speech earlier in the week to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard's official news organ (ahem) and the Boston Globe didn't mention anything sexual about Scalia's remarks.

But the Harvard Crimson reported the soon to be infamous remark in its Wednesday edition, which soon made the rounds via the Associated Press and Internet. What Scalia said, according to Wednesday's paper: "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."

Curiously, and most likely because the initial quote was sweeping the nation, the Crimson corrected itself in today's paper thusly:
The Sept. 29 news story "Scalia Describes 'Dangerous' Trend" misquoted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as saying that "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged." In fact, Scalia said, "I even accept for the sake of argument that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."

I didn't know we were arguing about it. What you do in your bedroom is your own business, Justice Scalia.

Wonder what the Globe editors had to say about missing that quote...