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>I am just trying to reconcile in my mind your views. Education, guns, gay marriage are just (imperfect) examples to help me get there. What I have so far and please correct me if I am wrong.
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>1) You do not approve of courts overturning the will of the people (as executed by elected officials).

The judiciary is to defend and uphold the United States Constitution and assure the rule of law prevails. The judiciary is duty-bound to overturn unconstitutional laws regardless of their source. If the law passes constitutional muster then it should be upheld as the will of the people. Obviously this is simplified as precedent, state constitution and existing civil and criminal codes must be considered as well.

>2) It is ok to overrule the will of the people if it is a right established by the constitution.

The Constitution supercedes the will of the people as stated above.

>3) If it is not a "right" you think the will of the people should stand. (Regardless of if the law/policy is discriminatory or not?)

If the law in question does not violate the Constitution, as stated above, then the courts should act to uphold the will of the people. Equal protection under the law is a right established by the 14th amendment. Discriminatory laws do not pass muster.

>4) Government/elected officials/the will of the people is inherantly inefficient and prone to smother the rights of the people.

You merged 2 ideas here. The 3 branches are essentially eroding the rights/freedom of the citizenry with each law passed. They are very efficient at this.

What is inefficient is the resulting government entities/agencies which carry out the legislation.

>>I'm not discussing what I'm OK with or what "should" be done. I'm pointing out that claiming education is equal as doled out by the government is not valid. As with most of what the government gets involved in, it is inefficient, ineffective and smothers the rights of the citizenry. Why would marriage be any different?
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>>If you want my opinion on education I'll offer it, but it seems out of scope for the discussion at present.