Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0001-6376-6132
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Keywords
Judicial review, Countermajoritarianism, Civil rights, Equal Protection Clause, Supreme Court, Democratic process
Abstract
This Article challenges liberal and conservative assessments of Lawrence, Gratz, and Grutter. Although the outcome of these cases might indeed prove helpful to the agendas of social movements for racial and sexual justice, progressive scholars and activists should not receive these cases with elation. Instead, the research of constitutional theorists, critical legal scholars, and political scientists allows for a more contextualized and guarded account of and reaction to these decisions. Instead of representing extraordinary victories for oppressed classes, these cases reflect majoritarian and moderate views concerning civil rights, and the opinions contain many doctrinal elements that reinforce, rather than dismantle, social subordination. Only a sober reading of these cases can permit equality theorists to place the decisions within a broader movement that contests narrow conceptions of legal and social equality.
First Page
1
Publication Title
Law and Inequality
Recommended Citation
Darren Lenard Hutchinson, The Majoritarian Difficulty: Affirmative Action, Sodomy, and Supreme Court Politics, 23 Law & Ineq. 1 (2005).
Included in
American Politics Commons, Courts Commons, Fourteenth Amendment Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons
Comments
Copyright © 2005 by Darren Hutchinson.