If marriage is a civil right, how can our President leave it to the individual states?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Because, as the law now stands, it IS

a state matter - because there is no general federal legislation regulating marriage. Also, there is no federal statute (like the 1964 Civil Rights Act) or federal court decision specifically making LGBT a protected class. Since it is a state law matter there are now six states that provide for marriage equality. If the matter were turned over to this Congress to consider, you can bet same-sex marriage would be outlawed by federal statute in all states.

What needs to happen - and Ted Olson is going to be doing this, soon - is a court challenge of the anti-marriage laws in one of the states (I think Prop 8 in CA). In Loving v. Virginia the Supreme Court held laws against interracial marriage violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, and they will argue that the same principle should apply to same-gender marriage. I don't know whether this will fly with the current Supreme Court, but it seems to me that there is no other way to reach the desired result.