Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended his conservative legal views during a speaking engagement Monday at Princeton University.

One pro-gay student asked the justice why he equates banning sodomy with bans on bestiality and murder.

Scalia said he is merely drawing a parallel between bans on moral issues.

"If we cannot have moral feeling against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?" Scalia responded.

The justice added that interpreting laws means adhering to the words and their meanings at the time they were written.

Scalia's lecture comes as the Supreme Court is set to hear two cases about laws that defend traditional marriage as between a man and a woman.