I can't seem to spot the issue...

"Private sector lawyers are joining forces with the San Francisco city attorney's office to defend the city's move last week to issue same-sex marriage licenses."

The licenses were issues in violation of state law.

A political subdivision is subordinate to the state. Local officials may not violate state law. When the municipal employees issued marriage licenses, they violated the law. Period.

I am sympathetic to civil disobediance, especially when the protester willinlyg suffers the consequences of em's actions, as Thoreau did when he sat in a jail cell rather than pay his taxes.

It creates a different problem when city officials begin breaking the law. I spent last summer in San Francisco. I paid over $200 in parking tickets. (I recieved a $100 ticket for not having a front license plate on my car). I obeyed the law and paid my fine. Had I refuse to pay, the city would have placed a "boot" on my car.

Why must I follow the law when city officials themselves disregard the law? I am to the city what the city is to the state, namely, bound by the law.

By the way, has anyone else noted how this situation parallels former-Judge Roy Moore's putting up the Ten Commandments monument? Why has the illegal conduct of local officials not causes a similar media outcry?