I would also argue that this matter has been portrayed by some as a separation of church and state issue, which in my opinion is not the case. It is an issue of states rights and state laws vs. Federal law. I know of no such thing as a Federal Marriage License and the issuance of Marriage Licenses has always been a responsibility of individual states and the laws that deal with those licenses has never been a federal matter. Ditto for drivers licenses etc. If posters to this blog want to give all responsibility to the federal government then you miss out on what the founding fathers had in mind.