Obviously the Supremo decision is a big fucking deal, and not just in the symbolic yay equality sense. It will have some immediate obvious impacts - immigration, taxation and benefits - but very deep practical benefits for current and future married gay couples.
One can wish to minimize the degree to which The State is in the marriage business, but I've never understood how it can get out of it completely. For the most part the state's interest in marriage is about what happens when marriages end, either due to divorce or death, recognizing that (generally) cohabitating couples eventually form a single financial entity and it has to be up to someone to figure out how to divide up the property at that point. I think people overstate the degree to which such things can be solved through private contracting, and underestimate the practical difficulties of doing so. It's a shame common law marriage recognition has declined, as I think it was a concept which made this idea more clear.
