Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito put in a strong dissent. Justice Scalia attacked the thinking, analysis, and legal reasoning of the majority, which he likened to “the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.” Justice Alito wrote: “Neither petitioners nor the majority cites a single case or other legal source providing any basis for such a constitutional right [as that of same-sex marriage]. None exists, and that is enough to foreclose their claim.” Chief Justice Roberts specifically attacked what he called the 5-justice majority’s “extravagant conception of judicial supremacy.” He added: “Allowing unelected federal judges to select which unenumerated rights rank as ‘fundamental’ — and to strike down state laws on the basis of that determination — raises obvious concerns about the judicial role.” Referring to the Founders’ struggle “for the precious right to govern themselves,” he added: “They would never have imagined yielding that right on a question of social policy to unaccountable and unelected judges … The Court’s accumulation of power does not occur in a vacuum. It comes at the expense of the people.” The Chief Justice concluded his vigorous dissent by sounding a warning that the legalization of same-sex marriage could endanger religious liberty: “Many good and decent people oppose same-sex marriage as a tenet of faith, and their freedom to exercise religion is — unlike the right imagined by the majority — actually spelled out in the Constitution.”
