SCOTUS decisions don't change hearts and minds, that's true. But SCOTUS decisions tend to follow long-term changes in public opininion. Gay marriage wouldn't have passed 50 years ago. SCOTUS acts like a classic common law court: the law exists independently of the courts, in the people, and the task of the court is to discover it.
> SCOTUS acts like a classic common law court: the law exists independently of the courts, in the people, and the task of the court is to discover it.
That's true in many important Constitutional areas, in many cases because parts of the Constitution are generally read in a way which incorporates that view (its particularly true, e.g., of things like 8th amendment "cruel and unusual" standards, 4th amendment reasonableness, 9th amendment nonenumerated rights, and 5th and 14th amendment due process.)
That is, the ways in which the Supreme Court "acts like a classic common law court" are because certain written sources of law like the Constitution or particular statutes are understood to require the court to do that to apply the law as intended, because the text itself invokes considerations that require consideration of the social context to apply.
Not necessarily. While SCOTUS legalized gay marriage after public support for it passed 50%, it wasn't until decades after SCOTUS legalized interracial marriage that public support for it passed 50%.
You are right. I don't think SCOTUS looks at gallup polls and decides to endorse anything that meets a 50% threshold. It's more about recognizing a change in opinion and a consensus in the making. Interracial marriage was not at 50% but firmly on the way up.
And I mean that literally. I started typing about five different responses, each beginning differently. None of them seemed to work, and besides I would've probably ended up typing too much anyway.