Limbaugh: Scalia's Dissent on DOMA 'Breathtaking'

Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday praised Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent on striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as “breathtaking,” saying that it demonstrated that “the law and judicial restraint, temperament and all that has evaporated” on the nation’s highest court.

“Scalia's dissent is unlike any dissent by any justice I've ever read about any case,” Limbaugh said on his afternoon program. “And that's because Scalia says that the majority in the DOMA ruling was unlike any majority that this court has ever produced, that it was filled with venom and rage.

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“If Scalia's dissent is right, what it means is that the common, ordinary fisticuff arguments between left and right in this country have now taken over the Supreme Court,” he added. “And the court is no different than a barroom now. Whoever has the largest number on one side, the loudest voices, and the most insulting voices wins.”

In a 5-to-4 decision, the justices struck down DOMA, which denied benefits to same-sex married couples. The court, also in a 5-to-4 decision, ruled that supporters of a California law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, lacked standing to appeal a federal district court ruling that struck down the law.

In his blistering dissent on the DOMA decision, Scalia said the self-governing power of the people has been eroded. He described the "assertion of judicial supremacy over the people’s representatives in Congress and the executive" as "jaw-dropping."

Scalia, who was appointed to the court in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, was joined in his dissent by Justices Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice Samuel Alito wrote a separate dissenting opinion.

“What's happened here is the Supreme Court has now demonized proponents and supporters of traditional marriage as it has been understood for thousands of years,” Limbaugh said in praising Scalia’s dissent. “The Supreme Court majority, in its ruling, actually uses language that insults and demonizes the people who support marriage as it's been since the beginning of time.

“There's no legal reasoning here, or very little,” he added. “Scalia says the majority has arrived at its point of view because the opponents of homosexual marriage are reprobates and bigots.

“It's disgusting. It demeans the Supreme Court — and it's turned the Supreme Court into nothing different from any venue in this country where people argue,” Limbaugh said. “It proves that we are up against people who don't give a damn about the rule of law or about basic decency or about decorum.”

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