Also known as: right to marry · rights to marriage · rights to marry · marriage right · right of marriage
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A fundamental liberty interest protected by the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The interest encompasses the decision of two consenting adults to enter a committed marital relationship and requires that states extend the status and its incidents on equal terms without unjustified interference.
Raphael Rivera owes unpaid child support and seeks to marry Regina Robinson. State officials refuse to issue the license until he obtains a court order confirming compliance with support obligations. The requirement blocks the couple from marrying without demonstrating that the barrier advances an interest closely tailored to collection needs.
Rowan Russell and Ricardo Rojas apply for a marriage license at the county clerk. The clerk refuses under a state constitutional provision limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. The denial prevents the couple from obtaining the legal status and benefits that opposite-sex couples receive.
Rebecca Ross and Renata Russo are lawfully married in another state. A state university denies them married-student housing and tuition remission available to opposite-sex couples by refusing to recognize their out-of-state marriage. The policy withholds marital incidents solely because of the spouses' sex.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Raphael Rivera and Regina Robinson marry and later face prosecution under a dormant statute targeting private intimate conduct between same-sex spouses. Officials revive the statute after complaints tied to the couple's marital status. The enforcement burdens the exercise of the marital relationship without a legitimate objective independent of moral disapproval.
Ricardo Rojas and Rowan Russell, an interracial married couple, apply for family relocation benefits through a state program. Officials deny the benefits by classifying the marriage according to the spouses' races. The classification imposes a racial barrier on access to marital incidents without satisfying strict scrutiny.
Rebecca Ross and Ricardo Rojas, an interracial couple married out of state, seek registration of their marriage for tax and inheritance benefits. State officials refuse under a rarely invoked provision originally aimed at interracial unions. The refusal withholds marital status and benefits on the basis of race.
The Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses protect the fundamental right to marry and require states to treat same-sex couples on the same terms as opposite-sex couples. Once a state confers civil marriage, it must recognize lawful same-sex marriages and extend the same constellation of rights and responsibilities.
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A statutory classification that significantly interferes with the exercise of the fundamental right to marry cannot be upheld unless supported by sufficiently important state interests and closely tailored to effectuate only those interests.
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No. When a state actor makes benefits turn on marital status, it may not treat same-sex marriages as lesser or refuse recognition simply because of the sex of the spouses or the source of the license. Such unequal treatment violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
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A facially neutral choice-of-law rule that applies uniformly to all categories of invalid foreign marriages and is administered without racial criteria may survive equal protection review even if the underlying provision originated in racial animus.
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…than the absence of physical restraint." The Court has said that the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause includes the right to marry, Loving v. Virginia , 388 U.S. 1 (1967); the right to have children, Skinner v. Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson , 316 U.S. 535 (1942); the right to direct the education and upbringing of…