Robert Rodes on Prop 8 and the "metaphysics of marriage"

My friend, colleague, and teacher, Bob Rodes, has posted a short essay at Jurist on the Ninth Circuit's decision in the Prop. 8 case.  He concludes with this:

[C]an a state base its laws on a metaphysical insight? In a word, yes. The equality of the races is a metaphysical insight, and all of our civil rights laws are based on it. Furthermore, the laws defining marriage, unlike the civil rights laws, do not coerce anyone. They express the metaphysical stance of the state without compelling anyone to adopt that stance. The main objection to its doing so is that it excludes people from the mainstream, whose metaphysical stance is different from that of the state. The primary answer to this objection, I believe, is that it belongs to the community as a whole to define its mainstream. We have wisely given our courts the task of protecting cultural minorities, people who differ from the mainstream in their beliefs, their practices or their lifestyles, and to shield that protection from the vicissitudes of politics. However, it is the task of the people, not the judiciary, to define the mainstream, and to do so through the democratic, political process. In this process, the people are sometimes wiser than their rulers, or the judges who have assumed their role.

Check out, by the way, his latest book, "Schools of Jurisprudence".