But let's move from the abstract to reality. It's just that we are bound as a society to follow the rules of a government (at least until we possibly change them) or be willing to suffer the consequences. It's a binary choice (as all choices eventually are.)
It's that simple. We can work to change those rules, leave the society (for a foreign land, a commune, or prison), or suffer the penalties called for under those rules/laws.
That is reality.
Someone asked, well, what happens when a court enforces a rule/law incorrectly. Under the precepts of Marbury v. Madison, after appeals, etc, a court is simply incapable of enforcing a rule/law incorrectly... because it's the courts that decide what “correct” is. Madison gives the courts final say what the law is.... unless it is changed by legislation passed by representatives of the people at a later date.
Take slavery, for example. For an extended time, it was legal. The 13th Amendment, adopted in 1865, reversed 70 years of what the people had come to believe was a wrong set of rules/laws. (BTW, from a legal standpoint, the Emancipation Proclamation was little more than a PR stunt.)
But was wrong as slavery was, it was the absolute law of the land until ‘65.
As far as laws being “popular,” that is a very slippery slope.
Eugenics and the laws supporting it were widely popular in Europe and the US in the first third of the 20th Century. Class-ism laws still abound in many parts of the world. Sex with another’s spouse is still illegal in many areas, even in the Western world. Libel is a civil matter here, but a criminal matter in much of Europe. Which is the right course?
As far as “popularity” in the US is concerned, “Pedophilia Chic” was very popular in NY in the 1980s, and there were serious moves in NY and California to legalize so-called "consensual" sexual relationships, regardless of the age of the younger participant. Conductor Leonard Bernstein was very fond of showing up with his wife and some 10-14 year old boy at some very “social” events in NYC, and every “cafe society” person thought it was “so cool” that the three of them would share a bed later.
Popular sentiment against he war in Vietnam made Draft Dogging so “popular,” Jimmy Carter effectively legalized it. Obama has effectively legalized what you and I would call “illegal immigration.”
Bottom line. Work to change laws you don't like, and/or change the people who make them, but complaining that a court is wrong about a law is “wrong” without working to change it is like complaining about gravity.
“It’s just that we are bound as a society to follow the rules of a government” - MB26
Ideally - but when government does not follow the rules - then what?
Take the not so hypothetical example of government funneling guns to gangs and drug cartels. What do we do when the government openly destabilizes society in clear violation of the law?
I think the answer lies in a document that begins “When in the course of human events...”