No one expects the conservative 78-year-old jurist to have a sudden equal-protection epiphany. He has made it abundantly plain that he has no use for same-sex unions; he thinks they are immoral. In his Lawrence v. Texas dissent, for instance, he said Americans have every right to enforce "the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct" in order to protect "themselves and their families from a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive."