You know that when the next ruling comes down overturning a gay-marriage ban, the wingnuts are going to wring their hands and wail, "There they go again--a bunch of unelected judges overturning the will of the people!" They'll keep up that line even when told that laws approved by referenda must pass the same constitutional muster as laws approved by the legislature. And they'll keep it up even when told that in a democracy, the majority cannot simply steamroll the minority. Well, some research reveals another possible way to shut down that argument--in Communist countries, judges were expected to always issue rulings in accordance with the will of the people, and the law be hanged.
In virtually every Communist country, the judiciary, along with practically all other government institutions, was subordinated to the legislature, which was officially described as the supreme manifestation of the people's will. As we all know, however, Communist legislatures did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made at the highest levels of the Communist Party.
So the next time your wingnut friends rant about the judiciary not being accountable to the people, ask them if they know how similar that line of thinking was to Communist thinking. Just food for thought ...