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Judicial Activism In 1948

15 May 2008 09:58 pm

The California court cited the 1948 Perez v Sharp anti-miscegenation law ruling prominently in its decision today. If you believe that courts should have no role in opposing public opinion in areas of social policy, then the polls at the time make for interesting reading. Ten years after the 1948 ruling, Gallup fund that 94 percent of white Americans opposed inter-racial marriage. As late as 1967, when Loving vs Virginia was decided, a majority opposed it. That remained the case through the 1970s. In fact, the Perez v Sharp ruling was fifty years ahead of public opinion.

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Thank god for activist judges
Excerpt: Andrew Sullivan notes that in its decision yesterday overturning the state's ban on gay marriage, the California Supreme Court cited Perez vs. Sharp, a 60-year-old ruling striking down a ban on interracial marriage on grounds that it violated the Fourt...
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