The government asserts itself in that arena. There is no "ceding" to it, it has "always" claimed power in that arena. There is no way to get the government out of it.
The government used to act to uphold sound tradition. For the past 80 years or so, it has been a force of tearing down tradition, and setting itself up for a bigger piece of the pie.
The only reason I don't see this as a political issue is that it is being decided by judges, who are roughly out of political reach. The politicians don't want to be involved in anything controversial, and are all too happy to let the judges help with running the country into the ground (although I am sure that neither group sees itself as doing any harm). A person who sees judges as in the political realm will disagree with my "not political" label. I don't recall hearing a single politician or candidate articulate a policy of impeachment and removal of judges who find a constitutional right to homosexual marriage. Unless those candidates start appearing, there isn't a political solution in any form!
Judges are part of the political system and voting.
We defeat them with conservative politics.