Is public opinion on gay marriage ahead of the Supreme Court's?

Dan82 · Aug 14, 2010

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-klarman-gay-marriage-20100815,0,7054903.story

Courts are almost never at the vanguard of social change. In general, they have required sweeping cultural shifts such as school desegregation only when it was clear that a substantial percentage of Americans supported them. So what does this portend for same-sex marriage litigation, which is likely to end up before the Supreme Court eventually, especially in light of recent federal court rulings in Boston and San Francisco in favor of same-sex marriage?

The first same-sex marriage cases, filed by gay couples in the 1970s, were nearly laughed out of court. But by the time of last week's ruling in support of same-sex marriage, more than 40% of the nation — and an even greater percentage in California — supported it. The question now will be whether that's enough of a cultural shift to influence the Supreme Court's thinking.

Before World War II, the NAACP refused to challenge school segregation, knowing that a case would lose in court because most Americans supported the status quo. But by the time the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, half the country agreed with the outcome.

At the time that Brown barred state-mandated school segregation, however, 21 states and the District of Columbia still practiced it. Today, 45 states do not permit same-sex marriage. It would be unusual for the Supreme Court to turn a norm embraced by only five states into a constitutional command for the nation — unusual but not unprecedented: Roe vs. Wade in 1973 invalidated the restrictive abortion laws of 46 states...
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-klarman-gay-marriage-20100815,0,7054903.story
Click to expand...

Martin · Aug 14, 2010

Hmmm, I can't help but disagree with this article.

It seems like bad journalism to ignore one of the most important marriage cases in the Supreme Court. Loving v Virginia is a landmark case from the Supreme Court, and it goes against this article suggesting that sweeping cultural shifts must occur before law is changed. That is true to some extent, but the 9-0 ruling against inter-racial marriage bans wasn't exactly done at a time when approval was high. Here's one graph I found from Gallup when researching:

Obviously inter-racial marriage was legal in more states during Loving v Virginia than same-sex marriage during Perry v Schwarzenegger, but it had a dramatically lower approval rate (20%) than same-sex marriage does, so I don't think it's entirely accurate to look solely on cultural attitudes.

Emberstone · Aug 14, 2010

Martin said: ↑

Hmmm, I can't help but disagree with this article.

It seems like bad journalism to ignore one of the most important marriage cases in the Supreme Court. Loving v Virginia is a landmark case from the Supreme Court, and it goes against this article suggesting that sweeping cultural shifts must occur before law is changed. That is true to some extent, but the 9-0 ruling against inter-racial marriage bans wasn't exactly done at a time when approval was high. Here's one graph I found from Gallup when researching:

Obviously inter-racial marriage was legal in more states during Loving v Virginia than same-sex marriage during Perry v Schwarzenegger, but it had a dramatically lower approval rate (20%) than same-sex marriage does, so I don't think it's entirely accurate to look solely on cultural attitudes.
Click to expand...

shame on seventeen percent of americans polled in 2007 on inter-racial marriage...

Is public opinion on gay marriage ahead of the Supreme Court's?

Dan82
Full Member

Martin
Board Member Admin Team Full Member

Emberstone
Full Member

Is public opinion on gay marriage ahead of the Supreme Court's?

Thread Tools

Dan82 Full Member

Martin Board Member Admin Team Full Member

Emberstone Full Member

Dan82
Full Member

Martin
Board Member Admin Team Full Member

Emberstone
Full Member