“What “civil partnership laws?” Most states didn’t pass those either.”
New Jersey, California, Nevada, Colorado and Illinois had either a “civil partnership” law or a “domestic partnership” law. Others were considering them when the “gay marriage” case headed to the SCOTUS.
The legal “stumbling block” to them was the wrong headed Clinton DOMA (”Defense of Marriage Act”). That act made federal recognition of civil partnerships or domestic partnerships no allowed.
Conservatives should have admitted that and preferring to not legalize “gay marriage” and get the very concept of marriage changed, Conservtaives should have agreed to repeal Clinton’s DOMA law, and allow federal recognition of civil partnerships. Had the DOMA law been repealed, there would have been no legal reason to pursue “gay marriage” at the SCOTUS, because federal law would not be standing in the way of recognizing civil partnerships at the federal level.
DOMA wasn’t wrong-headed at all. It expressed what everyone knew was marriage all along, forever.
Legally recognized “domestic arrangements” are just “marriage by another name.” There would not have been a single benefit extended to “domestic partners” which are not extended to married couples. It would have been exploited to the extreme until it WAS eventually officially “marriage,” probably much sooner than if we didn’t have DOMA.