MARRIAGE EQUALITY NATIONWIDE

[Dystopia]

That's a fair explanation, thanks. Striking down unconstitutional laws is a common practice in Europe as well - What isn't is a court legalizing something - That is what says in the OP, how does this work? There's always a natural and required intersection and contact between the three branches of power - My interest is investigating what's the optimal point to avoid compromising too much each branch.

Same-sex marriage was legalized by virtue of striking down all of the laws that prohibited it.  In the United States, if the law is silent on a topic, it is allowed.  Anything not prohibited is permitted.

This explanation really makes sense, thank you. In the legal/civil law system based on Roman influences it doesn't work that way - Sometimes silence means permission, but other times it doesn't - In particular regarding gay marriage, in most European States the most upper courts can do is strike bans that openly discriminate against same-sex people (but not implicitly) but marriage itself must be approved by democratic process and then there's a law about marriage saying how you do it, so you gotta' change that according to the new law allowing gays to marry. Marriage is 99% of the time codified on a law so you can't do what's not there.