The public is divided over last week’s Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage: 45% approve of the court’s decisions, while 40% disapprove. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center conducted June 27-30 among 1,003 adults, finds that most Americans are aware of the ruling and its implications. Two-thirds […] Read more »
Same-sex marriage and the South
… The US supreme court has, for now, left it up to states to determine whether or not marriage should be legal. While legalising gay marriage is becoming the majority opinion across the US, state polling indicates that marriage equality is far from becoming the law in every state. Surveys […] Read more »
Why did court treat two minorities so differently?
Gays win, blacks lose. That’s the upshot of this week’s landmark Supreme Court decisions. … Why did the Supreme Court treat the two minorities so differently? Because the two minorities face significantly different problems. Since the civil rights laws were passed in the 1960s, inequality has become a bigger problem […] Read more »
The Emerging Marriage Majority
… The legal patchwork faced by married gay couples in the wake of Windsor now make the state-by-state battles that have been taking place over the right to marriage even more important. In their midst will be sympathetic politicians and judges who nevertheless hesitate to usher in sweeping changes due […] Read more »
Public Opinion, the Court, and Justice Kennedy
… Judges are not elected by the public. Isn’t the purpose of a counter-majoritarian institution precisely that it does not follow swings in public mood? Still, political scientists have amassed an impressive array of evidence in favor of the hypothesis that the Court follows changes in public opinion. But why? […] Read more »
What if Marriage Equality Is Loving Instead of Roe?
… The fact that Windsor and Perry leave a two-tiered legal regime in place for most gay couples begs an even bigger question: why didn’t the Court simply establish marriage equality as the law of the land? The five justices making up the Court’s majority in Windsor clearly empathize with […] Read more »