So Pithy

1896. Plessy v. Ferguson. The US Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of racial segregation 7-1. Not until 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education would that ruling be overturned. In the intervening years those seven justices’ interpretation made possible countless injustices that a reversal nearly 60 years later and even additional legislation such as the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act could only begin to redress.

Worse, however, than the suffering that results from interpretation of the law and the constitution is that which occurs when the law or the constitution explicitly and intentionally discriminates. The passage of California Proposition 8 is not so much a Plessy v. Ferguson moment in history–that would be bad enough–as a reprise of the 3/5 compromise; both represent the codification of discrimination in documents that should define and limit the functioning of the state and protect the rights of citizens. Worse still, while the 3/5 compromise merely protected the status quo, Prop. 8 takes away rights.

Saddest of all is the fact that the 3/5 compromise and Plessy v. Ferguson were decisions made by small groups. The passage of Prop. 8, by contrast, is the work of over 5 million Californians.