From the closet to the altar : courts, backlash, and the struggle for same-sex marriage

From the closet to the altar Courts, backlash, and the struggle for same-sex marriage

Michael J. Klarman

Book - 2012

"Bancroft Prize-winning historian and legal expert Michael Klarman here offers an illuminating and engaging account of modern litigation over same-sex marriage. After looking at the treatment of gays in the decades after World War II and the birth of the modern gay rights movement with the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, Klarman describes the key legal cases involving gay marriage and the dramatic political backlashes they ignited. He examines the Hawaii Supreme Court's ruling in 1993, which sparked a vast political backlash--with more than 35 states and Congress enacting defense-of-marriage acts--and the Massachusetts decision in Goodridge in 2003, which inspired more than 25 states to adopt constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.... Klarman traces this same pattern--court victory followed by dramatic backlash--through cases in Vermont, California, and Iowa, taking the story right up to the present. He also describes some of the collateral political damage caused by court decisions in favor of gay marriage--Iowa judges losing their jobs, Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle losing his seat, and the possibly dispositive impact of gay marriage on the 2004 presidential election. But Klarman also notes several ways in which litigation has accelerated the coming of same-sex marriage: forcing people to discuss the issue, raising the hopes and expectations of gay activists, and making other reforms like civil unions seem more moderate by comparison. In the end, Klarman discusses how gay marriage is likely to evolve in the future, predicts how the U.S. Supreme Court might ultimately resolve the issue, and assesses the costs and benefits of activists' pursuing social reforms such as gay marriage through the courts"--

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Subjects
Same-sex marriage > Law and legislation.
Gay couples > Legal status, laws, etc.
Civil unions > Law and legislation.
Published
New York : Oxford University Press 2012.
Language
English
Main Author
Michael J. Klarman (-)
Physical Description
xii, 276 p. : ill ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780199922109
  • 1. World War II to Stonewall
  • 2. Stonewall to Bowers v. Hardwick
  • 3. Hawaii
  • 4. Vermont
  • 5. Massachusetts
  • 6. Post-Goodridge to Proposition 8
  • 7. To The Present
  • 8. Why Backlash?
  • 9. Conclusions and Predictions
Review by Choice Review

Klarman (Harvard Law School) examines the cost of and opportunities created by pursuing social change through the courts. He covers the familiar story of gay or equal marriage from the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision Baehr v. Miike through the backlash "defense of marriage" acts at the state and federal levels to debate over state protection and federal court action in favor of equal marriage. He does not need much more than the full story to raise questions about the strategy of litigation. Although he sees equal marriage as inevitable, he also notes the costs to US politics generally and to the civil union alternative due to entrenched resistance in many parts of the US. Klarman accurately predicts US Supreme Court action and discusses the pivotal role that he sees Justice Anthony Kennedy taking. This and evenhanded coverage make the book particularly timely even for an issue that is evolving very quickly. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. J. Brigham University of Massachusetts Amherst

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

At a time when the role of the Supreme Court is again in the headlines, following its ruling upholding Obamacare, Harvard Law School's Klarman does a remarkable job using the debate over gay marriage as a lens for examining the factors that will go into the Court's inevitable engagement with the issue. Klarman (From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality) effectively conveys the history of the issue, from the 1950s to 2012, and provides just enough detail to allow lay readers to emerge with an informed understanding of the twisted path same-sex marriage has taken. Unfamiliar readers are likely to be surprised by how recently the cause landed on the national gay rights agenda, and will be intrigued by the debates within the gay community about the wisdom of pursuing such a goal. (Some viewed all marriage as part of a "patriarchal system," while others viewed it as an abandonment of "transforming the very fabric of society" by becoming mainstream.) Klarman repeatedly refers to the role of popular culture in shaping public opinion toward gays in general, and discusses how such shifts influence court rulings. Advocates will be encouraged by his well-buttressed conclusion: "Once public opinion has shifted overwhelmingly in favor. the Court will constitutionalize the emerging consensus." (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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