Also known as: marital right · spousal rights
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Rights or obligations that arise between spouses by virtue of their marital status. These rights include interests in property, support, medical decision-making authority, and inheritance protections that attach automatically upon marriage.
Melanie Morris presented a premarital agreement to Miguel Mendoza two days before their wedding. The document waived all marital rights to property and support but contained no conspicuous notice or plain-language explanation of the rights being relinquished. Miguel had no independent counsel. A court later refused to enforce the agreement against Miguel because the missing notice and explanation left the waiver unenforceable.
Monica Morgan obtained an ex parte divorce decree in Nevada while Marcus Mitchell remained in North Carolina. Marcus later challenged the decree in North Carolina court, arguing that the foreign judgment could not adjudicate his continuing marital rights to property and support under North Carolina law. The court held that full faith and credit did not require recognition of the decree to the extent it purported to terminate those rights without personal jurisdiction over Marcus.
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Madison Meyers and Marco Marquez lived together for years and raised children but never married. After separation, Madison sought to enforce an alleged oral agreement for division of property by claiming rights equivalent to marital rights. The court refused, holding that Illinois public policy did not recognize such claims between unmarried cohabitants as equivalent to statutory marital rights.
Mirage Hotels provided health coverage to married employees but denied contraceptive reimbursement only to those who were married. Monica Morgan, a married employee, challenged the exclusion as burdening core marital rights protected by the Constitution. The court held that the policy violated the fundamental liberty interest in marital privacy by selectively burdening decisions within marriage.
After Melanie Morris died holding a fee tail estate, her surviving spouse Miguel Mendoza asserted a life interest in the land. The court recognized his marital rights as a dower life estate measured as if the decedent had held fee simple, but held the interest subordinate to the remainders and executory limitations already attached to the estate.
Marcus Mitchell's will left his probate estate to his children from a prior marriage. His surviving spouse Monica Morgan elected her statutory share. The court held that marital rights under the elective-share statute reached only probate assets and did not automatically extend to assets held in a revocable trust that Marcus had funded before death.
The agreement must include either a conspicuous notice of waiver or a plain-language explanation of the marital rights being modified or waived. Absence of both renders the agreement unenforceable against the unrepresented party.
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Yes. A surviving spouse receives a dower or curtesy life interest measured as if the decedent had held fee simple, but the interest remains subordinate to any remainders or executory limitations already attached to the fee tail.
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No. Once a state confers marital rights such as medical decision-making authority or other core incidents on married couples, it must extend those rights equally to same-sex marriages under due process and equal protection principles.
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…because, while it might be "silly," no provision of the Constitution specifically prevents the Government from curtailing the marital right to bear children and raise a family. While it may shock some of my Brethren that the Court today holds that the Constitution protects the right of marital privacy, in my view it is far more…