“Trying to say that a marriage is legal in 40 states, but illegal in 10 states, is never going to work.”
Why is the government (state or federal) in the marriage business anyway?
Because marriage has always either been legal or not, whether in Rome, or Greece, or in tribes or in the English colonies, or in America, and whether the law was called government, or was the government religion’s law.
Whether a marriage has actually happened is important, that is why George Washington wanted to make sure that his marriage was legal, and it especially becomes important when a marriage is over, or when one dies.