Ron Getty said/quoted:
. Legislators, however, should not have any concern for bringing about equality of result or opportunity, either between individuals or groups of individuals classified according to any criterion. The only place for equality concerns the law, which should treat all individuals the same without regard to their station in life. "
Prop. 22 was a violation of equality under the law and it was rightfully declared unconstitutional because it did not treat all individuals the same without regard to their station in life.
Agreed.
This does not get into the question of The State discovering issuing marriage licenses for revenue purposes and enacting social engineering issues through regulatory restrictions on obtaining a marriage license.
Much of the bad aspect of state-licensed marriage falls in these categories. If the role of the state were just a registrar, like the service provided by the county when real property is deeded, it would not be nearly so evil. Of course, even this service could be provided by the free market, without government.
It does not address why The State politicians decided at the time that they had to enter the marriage license business in the first place and couldn't leave well enough alone.
I have heard that state licensing of marriages became widespread with the advent of the miscegenation laws, around the time of the civil war. Our founding fathers didn't need a marriage license. We couldn't let that blacks and whites intermarry, could we?!
It went downhill from there. Once the mechanism of licensing was in place, the state could start engaging in all the other aforementioned evils such as social engineering with the tax system, (parts of) family law, and etc. Lucky for the bigots, these laws were still in place 100+ years later when the gays and lesbians got up the nerve to try and marry. Only a few minor tweaks, like Prop. 22, were needed to keep us in our place.
Rich