Dead issues
This post is inspired by looking at an issue of Bay Windows, which is our local GLBT-something newspaper. I noticed that nearly all the articles were about problems that I expect to be resolved, for good, in the next few decades (same-sex marriage, other forms of equality under the law). Then I tried to think of similar political issues that have been resolved with finality during my lifetime, and mostly blanked. I'm sure they exist, and it bugs me that I can't come up with more examples than Lawrence v Texas.[1]
So I'm looking for examples of reasonably major political issues that have been resolved during your memory (or lifetime), across the US as a country (not just in particular states, but not all), and with enough finality that they are exceedingly unlikely to come back (imagine a political equivalent of eradicating smallpox). It can be via a Supreme Court case, legislative activity, social change, whatever -- I'm too pragmatic to care. Feel free to be creative about what counts as a political issue (or a major one), if you think of a neat example.
[1] While the specifics of the holding of that are disputed, I'd say that case forbids criminalizing consensual sex outside of situations where consent is declared unobtainable by statute (e.g. age, kinship, mental incapacity, etc., so long as those categories don't vary based on whether something is heterosexual or not). Lawrence v. Texas is a particularly nice example because I'm also old enough to remember Bowers v. Harwdick coming out, holding that states could criminalize homosexual sodomy. Bowers wasn't necessarily a popular ruling; I remember that comedians thought it was hilarious at the time, and made jokes about how you could "still commit Gomorrah". The issue was definitely not a completely dead one at the time Lawrence v. Texas rolled around, despite states picking away at it one by one in cases based on state constitutions, but I think after Lawrence it is genuinely settled (I think most Supreme Court cases have a much higher susceptibility to later reversal, but it's difficult to imagine circumstances under which Lawrence would get reversed).
So I'm looking for examples of reasonably major political issues that have been resolved during your memory (or lifetime), across the US as a country (not just in particular states, but not all), and with enough finality that they are exceedingly unlikely to come back (imagine a political equivalent of eradicating smallpox). It can be via a Supreme Court case, legislative activity, social change, whatever -- I'm too pragmatic to care. Feel free to be creative about what counts as a political issue (or a major one), if you think of a neat example.
[1] While the specifics of the holding of that are disputed, I'd say that case forbids criminalizing consensual sex outside of situations where consent is declared unobtainable by statute (e.g. age, kinship, mental incapacity, etc., so long as those categories don't vary based on whether something is heterosexual or not). Lawrence v. Texas is a particularly nice example because I'm also old enough to remember Bowers v. Harwdick coming out, holding that states could criminalize homosexual sodomy. Bowers wasn't necessarily a popular ruling; I remember that comedians thought it was hilarious at the time, and made jokes about how you could "still commit Gomorrah". The issue was definitely not a completely dead one at the time Lawrence v. Texas rolled around, despite states picking away at it one by one in cases based on state constitutions, but I think after Lawrence it is genuinely settled (I think most Supreme Court cases have a much higher susceptibility to later reversal, but it's difficult to imagine circumstances under which Lawrence would get reversed).