It seems obvious to me that the so-called "marriage debate" cannot be decided in the halls of Congress or in the offices of governors, judges, mayors, or county clerks. Marriage is fundamentally a religious or personal covenant (contract).

Governments may rightly register, and also have a delegated obligation to enforce, lawful contracts, but they have no legitimate authority to "license" them.

Pragmatically, governments do "license" many things under color of law (illegitimately). In the case of the marriage contract, as with all contracts, if a contract issue is brought by an aggrieved party for adjudication or enforcement, it is government's legitimate obligation to determine its legality. And if it is found to be legal, then and only then do they have an obligation to judge and enforce the terms of that contract.