It takes a lot of work to wilfully misinterpret the 14th Amendment but Antonin Scalia is up for the job. Not only does Scalia redefine the word “citizens” to mean men only but he also just skips over the true legislative history of the amendment.
A legitimate professional historian writes:
It’s not even clear Scalia has the legislative history of the 14th Amendment right. Rep. Benjamin Butler was present at the creation, and he believed the 14th Am. had the potential to guarantee equal protection for female citizens. Same with Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who affirmed a woman’s equal right to practice law in his 1873 dissent in Bradwell v. Illinois. Chase was not only closer than his fellow justices to the men who wrote the Amendment, he was much more deeply involved in the debates of the Reconstruction period.
I’d go stronger. Scalia is clearly mistaken about the legislative history. He said “Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that.” Clearly at least some people thought that.
I guess Scalia’s founding fathers ouija board is broken.