“There is no law that requires her to grant a marriage license to people of the same sex,” said Michael Peroutka, a lawyer and founder of the Institute on the Constitution, a conservative think tank. “The Court has had many opinions … but they are not law,” he added.

Peroutka was echoing Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who said in a statement Thursday that the Supreme Court “cannot and did not make a law. They only made a ruling on a law. Congress makes the laws.”

Legal experts, however, told NBC News that’s a false argument.

“A Supreme Court decision is the law. Full stop,” said Jeffrey Fisher, a Stanford University law professor and expert on Supreme Court practice. “When the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s words become the law,” he added.