Does the equal protection clause over state law apply to enforce strict compliance with state law?

Indeed, if an abstract interest in compliance with state law, divorced of the democratic principles that motivate those laws, were counted as a significant part of the public interest calculus, the supremacy of the equal protection clause over state law would be undermined in a manner especially inconsistent with its purpose. Strict compliance with state law deserves weight in contexts where state interests deserve deference. See, e.g., Lee v. Kemna, 534 U.S. 362, 375, 122 S.Ct. 877, 151 L.Ed.2d 820 (2002) (stating that the practice of

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