“Marriage regulation in the US is a state law matter. [..] Believe it or not, family/marriage law is one area the feds don’t want to get involved in, …”
— Comment by thedeti @ Sigma Frame “A Concise History of Marriage Regulations” (2023-06-12)
— Comment by thedeti @ Sigma Frame “A Concise History of Marriage Regulations” (2023-06-12)
In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Court held that same-sex marriage was a fundamental right protected by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. The ruling required all states to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples, leaving Section 2 of DOMA as superseded and unenforceable.
When it wants to, the federal government can and will regulate marriage, whether directly (e.g. DOMA; same-sex marriage) or indirectly (e.g. tax law). According to the American Bar Association, this includes a wide variety of federal family laws.
What the federal government chooses to regulate only tells you what its priorities are, not its functional ability to do so, which it has aptly demonstrated and keeps expanding over time. Everyone knows that marriage regulation in the U.S. is a only matter of state law at the allowance of federal discretion. It is only a practical—not in principle—matter of state law.