Process and equal protection that led to Obergfel. An interesting development given that the Court has never fully declared sexual orientation to be a protected class that automatically triggers strict scrutiny. Basically there is a “fundamental right” to marry a person of your choosing, so even run-of-the-mill “rational basis” equal protection cases need to have strict scrutiny applied instead (since it involved a fundamental right).

But if Thomas got his way and the entirety of SDP was invalidated, not sure how the Court would uphold Obergfel as that tie would not exist. No way in hell this Court would hold that sexual orientation is an automatic strict scrutiny classification like race, and there certainly isn’t an amendment or federal statute protecting same sex marriage….shit, just a few years ago there was still one on the books that expressly deprived them of federal marital benefits and told other states they did not have to recognize the validity of out-of-state gay marriages.
[Post edited by WahooRQ at 06/27/2022 1:46PM]