This concern was hardly unfounded: A Hawaii court’s 1993 ruling provoked the federal Defense of Marriage Act; multiple states voted for one-man, one-woman constitutional amendments in 2004; Iowans voted out three state Supreme Court justices who had backed a pro-gay-marriage ruling.

Now, however, federal judges in some of the most conservative regions of the country have essentially decreed a constitutional right to same-sex marriage — and the response has been notable mainly for its tepidity.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee called on state officials to resist, but that solitary stand probably won’t get any more traction than his futile advocacy of a one-man, one-woman amendment to the Constitution. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) called for a constitutional amendment, too — to enshrine the relatively moderate proposition that marriage should be left to the states.