"Structural and cultural shifts have convinced many on the left that their causes are broadly and increasingly popular, and that strong rights protections have become a political obstacle. "

"But it is rash, especially in a big and insubordinate country like this one, to imagine that appeals to reasonableness and popularity will always serve as a more reliable guide to justice than the language of the Constitution. Yes, the N.R.A. used the language of rights to defeat laws that many people say they support.... But this is how rights often work: they protect things that most people think don’t deserve protection at all."

From "From Guns to Gay Marriage, How Did Rights Take Over Politics? The N.R.A., the Supreme Court, and the forces driving the country’s most intractable legal debates" by Kelefa Sanneh (in The New Yorker).

Of course rights are experienced as "a political obstacle." That's exactly the idea. When shouldn't the majority win. 

Sanneh is mostly bouncing off of a book: