A Stitch in Haste

Many if not most lawyers and law students will recognize the reference to the horrific case Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), which sanctioned forced sterilization of the mentally incompetent.

For the rest of you, please read David Boaz’ outstanding summary of the history of Virginia’s anti-, well just about anti-everything laws, restricting marriage to "correct" couples. Excellent reading.

Money quote:

[A] Gallup Poll indicated in 1965 that 42 percent of Northern whites supported bans on inter-racial marriage, as did 72 percent of Southern whites. The case [Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)] found its way to the Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned the law against interracial marriage in 1967...

Today, essentially everyone recognizes as proper the right to marry interracially. And no one outside a first-year Con Law class cares that the right was memorialized by an “activist” Supreme Court that flouted the “democratic process” as represented by assorted state legislatures full of hack politicians. So shall it be with gay marriage in years hence.

The bigots are on the wrong side of history, as are the “too much too soon” crowd. The Connecticut approach was correct. But so was the Massachusetts approach. If the democratic process fails to protect the minority, if it fails to preserve basic constitutional rights and basic human dignities, if we are left with no option but to sue, then sue we will. How can you expect otherwise?

Previous posts on Virginia here and here and here.