If you have any interest at all in constitutional law, I strongly recommend that you read Timothy Sandefur's post on demagoguery and the claim that "unelected judges" are "usurping the will of the people". It's one of those essays you read and think, "Damn, I wish I'd written that. He says exactly what I wanted to say about it." The specific issue is gay marriage and Senator Orrin Hatch's article on the subject here, but what he is really talking about is the broader issue of the role courts were intended to play in our system of government.
When conservatives scream about "activist judges" overruling laws that the people want and how "undemocratic" this is, they are simply showing their ignorance of the historical record. Mr. Sandefur has given us a devestating critique of such demagoguery.
Ed:
I hope you noticed the following from the Hon. [?] Sen. Hatch's article:
"For a simple and compelling reason, traditional marriage has been the norm in every political community for 5,000 years."
Hatch is a Mormon. A Utah Mormon. He must have cut class in high school they day they discussed polygamy and Brother Brigham and the founding of, I guess we could call it, the "political community" of Young's Great Basin kingdom.
Unless of course by "traditional marraige" he includes marraige between one man and many women. Be fun to ask him sometime.... If so, logic if not simply honesty, should also compel him to include as "traditional marriage" unions between one woman and many men, que no?