Marriage is about creating families and the treatment gays had in affirming familial rights agaisnt families of origin in hospitals is well documented and why they had the issue. Of course, Catholic Health saw the light even before the Court ruled. Gay spouses are now next of kin.

The term is elite lawyer, not elitist lawyer.

Marbury v. Madison gives the judiciary the right of judical review and it is unchallenged. 7th Grade History.  The Civil Rights Act of 1875 implments the 14th Amendment power of Congress to enforce it, giving the Courts the power to rule on equal protection and due process claims of the citizens of a state against their state. Actually, just residents, including undocumented ones, as the case law evolved. Cases come to them because people are harmed by governmental action, especially by states acting out of moral scorn, which is not protected under the Constitution, as Kennedy wrote in Romer v. Evans. (Roberts was on the legal time for the pro-gay side).