To have stopped at that point, however, would have left the Commonwealth, the ACT and the states that have been contemplating same-sex marriage legislation in limbo as to what they might do next. One option would have been for a state to enact same-sex marriage legislation and wait for it to be challenged in the High Courtprobably, as had happened with the ACT act, after marriages under that legislation had already taken place. For these reasons, it would seem, the Court proceeded to decide whether the marriage power, Constitution s 51(xxi), extends to same-sex marriage. All parties to the case had agreed that the marriage power extends to same-sex marriage. The Court did not consider itself constrained by that agreement, but it came to the same view. The Court rejected the conventional options in constitutional interpretation:  Thus the word "marriage" in Constitution section 51(xxi) states a "topic of juristic classification" which is not tied to any historical model and the federal parliament can legislate as it wishes within that topic. In the Court's view, same-sex marriage comes within the topic. The Court did not refer to the several same-sex marriage ceremonies that had already taken place. However, the Court made it clear that, since the ACT act had never been of any effect and the Marriage Act is exhaustive, the only type of marriage that can be contracted in Australia was and is that provided in the Marriage Act. It follows that those ceremonies could not have created marriages. There can now be uniform federal law for marriages of any kind. The most direct way to achieve that is to amend the Marriage Act, to provide that a person's sex is not a criterion of eligibility to marry. The Marriage Act would retain its exclusivity, so that no state or territory would be able to legislate about marriage of any kind. Owing to that exclusivity, the ACT same-sex marriage act would remain inconsistent with the Marriage Act and, consequently, continue to be of no effect. Due to the fact the Court's ruling held the "Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013" to be of no effect, the Act is regarded as being "impliedly repealed", despite having never been repealed by the Legislative Assembly. After the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 was passed, the ACT Government offered free marriage certificates for couples who married there under the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013.