Well, it's just my guess. I'm not putting cred on that outcome, and in fact believe it is incorrect. I just get the feeling Roberts is pissed the issue is even before the Court, Alito and Scalia were openly hostile (and hypocritical) in questions they asked, Thomas will follow Scalia .... and Kennedy seemed ... not inclined to open up something nationally like Loving. I just don't see Kennedy "creating a new right" with a 5-4 decision.
Scalia asked Olsen "when did this right come into existence?" Olson parried "when did the Loving right come into existence." Scalia growled about questions answering questions, but then said when the 14th amend became law.
Welllllllll, doesn't that beg the question about what took so damn long for the Lovings to get their right? Roughly 80 years passed. So, the question won't go away. At some pt there will be a supermaj of states approving civil unions or something, and Miss and Ala and SC will be whistling Dixie in the dark.
Thomas does NOT follow Scalia. that myth makes you look foolish. try not to reuse it. This is NOT about a NEW RIGHT. It is about extending a right. Giving blacks and women the vote was not creating a new right.
The SCOTUS going all the way back to the Marshall Court, has been careful not to get too far ahead of the public on controversial political issues. That is factual history. Would extending to same-sex couples, the fundamental right to marry (court ruled it fundamental), be too controversial and harm the Court?
Many social conservatives openly despise the Court, so why fear that happening?

Social Conservatives need to start getting back to basics.
The right of gays/same-sex couples to be afforded state recognition of marriage is the issue, not the right to marry. Gays have been getting married by progressive minsters and in private ceremonies since at least the 1970s that I know of.
The issue is one of the state having an interest in recognizing same-sex marriages