Monday, August 03, 2009

Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts

Robert George, professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, has an important article in the recent Wall Street Journal: "Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts." George argues that the people need to debate and decide the issues surrounding marriage, not the Supreme Court. He observes that the Supreme Court is to blame for much of the culture war in the aftermath of its Roe v. Wade decision, and if the Supreme Court steps in on the issue of marriage, we would be going down a similar road. His conclusion: "For reasons of both principle and prudence, the issue should be settled by democratic means, not by what Justice Byron White, in his dissent in Roe, called an “'act of raw judicial power.'” Read the whole article.