SCALIA'S UNPERSUASIVE ARGUMENT

Republicans are engaged in a bout of soul searching following the calamitous results of the 2012 election. But the party is held back by ideologues who can't get with the times. Take same-sex marriage. The trend lines are clearly against the Republican Party's opposition to marriage equality; young voters overwhelmingly support full marriage rights for LGBT couples and each year the share of the electorate that supports gay rights grows. If the GOP hopes to sell conservatism to younger voters, moderating its stance on same-sex marriage would be a quick and easy fix.

Yet the GOP won't have an easy time severing its homophobic ties. Yesterday, during an event at Princeton, Supreme Court Justice and conservative icon Antonin Scalia didn't mince words in criticizing LGBT rights. "If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality," Scalia asked before a room of students, "can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?" The statement was a response to a question posed by Duncan Hosie, a gay freshman at the university. Unsurprisingly, the justice's answer proved unpersuasive to the room full of Millennials—all Scalia could muster was “I’m surprised you aren’t persuaded.”

This term, the Supreme Court will hear two cases relating to same-sex marriage. No one is quite sure how swing justice Anthony Kennedy will vote, but few expect any of the four solidly conservative justices to rule in favor of LGBT rights. These two cases may one day be considered as the landmark civil-rights decision of this generation. While the Supreme Court justices themselves might technically be separated from the machinations of party politics, most voters are savvy enough to realize that Scalia and his conservative brethren are Republican icons as much as John Boehner or Mitch McConnell. The GOP's hopes for wooing young voters will be for naught if the party's ideological allies on the Court block marriage rights for gay couples next year. The conservative legal movement, just like conservative elected officials, is on the wrong side of history. The stances they take now will color voter perceptions for decades to come.