I thought SCOTUS ruled this a state matter when it came to DOMA, federal judges are not states.
Ignore it.
You are correct regarding the Supreme Court ruling. However the liberals were not happy with that outcome. So they have been suing states in federal court since then over their definitions of marriage.
Mainstream liberal thought nowadays is that it is just like racial discrimination and the old Jim Crow laws to not allow homosecual marriage. That’s quite a stretch in my opinion, but that’s where mainstream liberal legal opinions are nowadays.
Even though this whole subject of “sexual orientation” or “sexual identity” is not a protected class under federal civil rights laws, liberal judges are issuing rulings as if homosexuals are a protected class under those laws. They decided that homosexuality is a minority group.
Exactly.
The SCOTUS also denied standing to the people of CA for a suit forcing their state-officers from abiding by the Prop 8 Amendment -- even though the CA Supreme Court certified their standing in the absence of the State's prosecutor taking up the case. In so doing, the USSC told the people that it is not a State matter.
So it very much seems that whether it's a State issue or not depends on if it's in line
with their opinion.