WASHINGTON, D.C., October 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — During today’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Judge Amy Coney Barrett refrained from expressing a position on whether she agrees or disagrees with her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, on so-called homosexual “marriage.”
Asked by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) if she agrees with Scalia that “the U.S. Constitution does not afford gay people the fundamental right to marry,” Barrett responded, “If I were confirmed, you would be getting Justice Barrett, not Justice Scalia.”
“So I don’t think that anybody should assume that just because Justice Scalia decided a decision a certain way, I would, too,” she added. “But I’m not going to express a view on whether I agree or disagree with Justice Scalia for the same reasons that I have been giving.”
Barrett referred to pro-abortion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said “with her characteristic pithiness” that a Supreme Court nominee during confirmation hearings should give “no hints, no previews, no forecasts” regarding potential future rulings.
“I’m sorry to not be able to embrace or disavow Justice Scalia’s position, but I really can’t do that on any point of law,” Barrett added.
In Obergefell v. Hodges, the majority had argued that homosexual “marriage” was constitutional, based on the 14th amendment.
In his dissent, Scalia countered, “When the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, every State limited marriage to one man and one woman, and no one doubted the constitutionality of doing so. That resolves these cases.”
Barrett, who is Catholic, said during today’s confirmation hearing: “I have never discriminated on the basis of sexual preference, and would not ever discriminate on the basis of sexual preference. Like racism, I think discrimination is abhorrent.”
The Catholic Church teaches that same-sex inclination is “objectively disordered” since male and female sexuality, including inclinations, are ordered toward marriage and procreation. Those with same-sex inclinations must be “accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” the Church teaches, and “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
The Church’s distinction between just and unjust discrimination is relevant here. A 1992 document by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith provided examples where such discrimination is permissible. “There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment,” the document stated.