Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf
Page Number: 62.0

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

23 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

past  is  never  dead.    It’s  not  even  past.”  W.  Faulkner, 
Requiem for a Nun 92 (1951). 

III 
In  addition  to  their  due  process  argument,  petitioners 
contend  that  the  Equal  Protection  Clause  requires  their 
States  to  license  and  recognize  same-sex  marriages.  The 
majority  does  not  seriously  engage  with  this  claim.  Its 
discussion is, quite frankly, difficult to follow.  The central 
point  seems  to  be  that  there  is  a  “synergy  between”  the 
Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause, and 
that  some  precedents  relying  on  one  Clause  have  also
relied on the other.  Ante, at 20.  Absent from this portion
of the opinion, however, is anything resembling our usual
framework for deciding equal protection cases.  It is case-
book  doctrine  that  the  “modern  Supreme  Court’s  treat-
ment  of  equal  protection  claims  has  used  a  means-ends 
methodology  in  which  judges  ask  whether  the  classifica-
tion  the  government  is  using  is  sufficiently  related  to  the
goals  it  is  pursuing.”    G.  Stone,  L.  Seidman,  C.  Sunstein, 
M. Tushnet, & P. Karlan, Constitutional Law 453 (7th ed.
2013).  The majority’s approach today is different: 

“Rights implicit in liberty and rights secured by equal 
protection  may  rest  on  different  precepts  and  are  not
always  co-extensive,  yet  in  some  instances  each  may
be  instructive  as  to  the  meaning  and  reach  of  the 
other. 
In  any  particular  case  one  Clause  may  be 
thought to capture the essence of the right in a more 
accurate  and  comprehensive  way,  even  as  the  two
Clauses may converge in the identification and defini-
tion of the right.”  Ante, at 19. 

The majority goes on to assert in conclusory fashion that
the Equal Protection Clause provides an alternative basis 
for its holding.  Ante, at 22.  Yet the majority fails to pro-
vide  even  a  single  sentence  explaining  how  the  Equal