by Hadley Arkes

About the author: Hadley Arkes is the Ney Professor of Jurisprudence at Amherst College in Massachusetts and a contributing editor of the National Review. He was a consultant in the litigation over gay rights in Cincinnati.

[Editor’s note: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Amendment 2 in May 1996, subsequent to the original publication of this viewpoint.]

The Supreme Court is moving to the threshold of a decision as portentous nearly as Roe v. Wade, and hardly anyone seems to be paying much attention. Only a handful of lawyers, in Colorado, Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C., share the agony now of waiting.

Romer v. Evans

By any sober reckoning, there should have been nothing to strain the wit of judges in the so-called, miscalled case of “gay rights” in Colorado, Romer...