by Antonin Scalia, William H. Rehnquist, and Clarence Thomas

About the authors: Antonin Scalia has served as a U.S. Supreme Court justice since 1986 and is known for his conservative views on many issues. He is joined in his dissenting opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas.

The U.S. Supreme Court has mistaken a Kulturkampf [culture struggle] for a fit of spite. The constitutional amendment before us here [Colorado’s Amendment 2 in Romer v. Evans] is not the manifestation of a “bare . . . desire to harm” homosexuals, but is rather a modest attempt by seemingly tolerant Coloradans to preserve traditional sexual mores against the efforts of a politically powerful minority to revise those mores through use of the laws. That objective, and the means chosen to...