"Gay marriage defeated in New York court."

http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-626.htm

An interesting article presenting legal reasoning for and against a court ruling.

What should concern us in particular, given Term 3's topic (Science & Human Values), is the part that social sciences play in the reasoning.

The conclusions of social sciences are based on statistics; social policies, with widespread ramifications, are chiefly based on statistics -- it is therefore important that we scrutinize
how
policy-makers, legislators, the judiciary,
use
"science," "statistics," "facts,"
to justify, legitimize, satisfy the "ethical" standards involved in,
any formal decision.