The Backlash Against Out-of-Control Legislative Activists

In addition to being excellent news on the policy merits, the fact that Maine has an initiative system means that the state provides an excellent test case for claims that recent initiatives opposing same-sex marriage were driven by institutional critiques of judicial review or by substantive policy views. And pretty much all the evidence continues to suggest that it’s the latter. The whole argument is essentially one big pundit’s fallacy. People act to oppose same-sex marriage because they oppose same-sex marriage irrespective of the institution that annunces the policy change, not because they have a well-worked-out theory of democracy that happens to comport with Alexander Bickel’s.