Just to illuminate to our non-USA posters that tricky minefield of "state's rights" versus federal domain, several states are challenging the DOMA (the misnamed "Defense of Marriage Act") that Congress passed as unconstitutional in that the regulation of marriage is a state's domain. They assert the federal law is illegal basically.
In jurisprudence, normally the federals set the minimum standards to protect the rights of citizens and the state may exceed them. The feds telling state's to restrict rights? Well, several states are calling bullshit on it legally.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...ng-battlefield