This Might Be Why Justice Scalia Was So Tame During The Gay Marriage Fight

Justice Antonin Scalia has a history of making deeply offensive comments about gay people, but he was fairly restrained during the highly anticipated gay marriage arguments this week.

Scalia did ask a lawyer, "When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?" But that statement was just a nod to his strict interpretation of the Constitution, which does not specify explicitly that gays get marriage equality.

His question wasn't nearly as offensive as his other comments about gays — from comparing gay couples to roommates to putting "homosexual conduct" in the same category as murder.

So, why was Scalia relatively restrained about a topic that he's always been so vocal about? It's possible he's trying to tone down his anti-gay remarks since he's starting to get a reputation for being a homopobe.

However, NPR's top legal correspondent Nina Totenberg has a different theory about why he was such a lamb on the bench this week: