Rod Dreher asks a good question:

What I don't get is this: why was it wrong for Judge Roy Moore of Alabama to unilaterally declare federal law wrong, and defy it by installing a Ten Commandments monument in a courthouse rotunda ... but it's okay for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to unilaterally declare state law wrong in prohibiting same-sex marriage, and defy it by issuing marriage licenses to gay couples? I mean, I know why the media was outraged by the former episode of grandstanding and not the latter, but as a legal matter, what's the difference?

A friend asked the same thing in a phone conversation just last night.

I suppose the answer has something to do with the fact that the SF mayor is just obviously doing the right thing, while Moore was just obviously doing the wrong thing. (BTW, I disagreed with Moore, as I blogged at the time; but Dreher's point remains a valid one.)