For some reason I keep thinking about this obnoxious decision. It just now occurred to me WHY the NJ Supreme Court stretched the state constitution in order to get equal protection, instead of falling back on the easily accessible US Constitution: By sticking to the NJ Constitution, the NJ Supreme Court may be hoping that they will be shown deference by the US Supreme Court and so won’t be overturned, as they might be if they relied on the 14th Amendment.