If the highlights of the first day of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the high-profile federal case challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8, were spiced by deeply personal testimony from gay and lesbian couples, the tone on the second day veered toward a cool academic recounting of the 20th century history of marriage restrictions in the United States.

Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the odd-couple legal team behind the challenge being heard in federal court in San Francisco, called Nancy F. Cott, a Harvard historian, to the stand in a continued effort to frame their case as a civil right struggle.

Professor Cott testified that she believes there are parallels between restrictions on gay marriage and historical restrictions on white American women marrying men of other races. She cited a federal law restricting marriage between Caucasian women and Chinese men that remained in force until World War II, when the U.S. and China became allies.

“The racially restrictive law prevented individuals from complete choice in who they married,” she said. It conveyed that “some groups were less worthy than other groups, some marriages were less worthy than other marriages.”

Read the rest of Gerry Shih’s New York Times article here.