Some questions for same gender marriage Part III

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Pick up Part II (and the link to Part I) here.

Part of the SCOTUS ruling from 1967 bothers me, a lot.

In the Loving v. Virginia SCOTUS decision, Justice Warren also wrote, "While the state court is no doubt correct in asserting that marriage is a social relation subject to the State's police power..." Where this is elaborated on, it’s always in reference to race.

Much hangs on the word “race” and its variants. Court cases turn on a single word, so the relevance of “race” in this decision has to be fundamental.

SCOTUS makes it clear: “The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.”

The 14th Amendment: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.  No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

In the Wikipedia article on Loving v. Virginia, the article states: "Before Loving v. Virginia, there had been several cases on the subject of interracial relations. In Pace v. Alabama (1883), the Supreme Court ruled that the conviction of an Alabama couple for interracial sex, affirmed on appeal by the Alabama Supreme Court, did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Interracial marital sex was deemed a felony, whereas extramarital sex ("adultery or fornication") was only a misdemeanor. On appeal, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the criminalization of interracial sex was not a violation of the equal protection clause because whites and non-whites were punished in equal measure for the offense of engaging in interracial sex.”

Race is mentioned in the Constitution.