STAFF EDIT: Civil rights done right

Gay marriage proponents may have suffered a setback last November when Californians voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman, but the struggle for marriage equality has momentum once again. On Tuesday, the Vermont legislature voted to override Gov. Jim Douglas’s veto as Vermont became the fourth state to legalize gay marriage. This comes on the heels of the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that barring gay marriage in Iowa was unconstitutional.

A state as liberal as Vermont was seemingly destined to legalize gay marriage in the near future, but the Iowa decision marks the first time a supreme court in a state that isn’t so blue has moved to allow same-sex marriage. Now gay marriage won’t just be a liberal, East Coast fantasy, but a reality for the Midwest gay population.

Already however, conservatives are decrying this advancement in equality as nothing more than ‘activist judges’ imposing their liberal views on unwilling state populations. Republicans are already pledging to put the issue of gay marriage to a vote in Iowa as soon as possible, arguing that the people deserve to vote on the matter.

This country may value the democratic process, but when it comes to issues such as gay marriage, it is never appropriate to put the civil rights of a minority to a popular vote. It took an ‘activist court’ in 1954 to say that segregation was unconstitutional. But if the issue of segregation had been put to the vote of the people in Southern states, there is a very real chance that racism would have prevailed.

It is the responsibility of the judicial system to ensure that the constitutional rights of all citizens are being protected. It may not be popular to tell the American public that they can’t always have the final say, but the majority must not be allowed to deny the minority their civil rights.