Also known as: right to marriage · marriage right · marriage rights · 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. Significant state interference with the decision to marry triggers heightened scrutiny requiring the government to show sufficiently important interests and close tailoring to those interests alone.
Lena, a software engineer with unpaid child support from a prior relationship, applies for a marriage license. A state statute requires court approval for high-compensation workers who owe arrears before they may marry. The court denies permission. Lena challenges the denial, and the statute falls because it imposes a direct barrier on the fundamental right without narrow tailoring to collection goals.
Rosa Ruiz and Ricardo Rojas, a married couple, seek to exercise reproductive choices together. State rules impose spousal notification requirements that burden their marital autonomy. The couple sues, arguing the rules interfere with protected marital decisions. The court applies the framework recognizing marriage as part of fundamental liberty interests.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Ralph Richardson moves to Iowa and immediately seeks a divorce from his out-of-state spouse. The state requires one year of residency before granting the dissolution. Richardson challenges the waiting period as a penalty on the right to adjust marital status. The court examines whether the rule unduly burdens the fundamental right tied to marriage.
Roland Rhodes faces prosecution under a state sodomy law after private consensual conduct with his partner. He argues the statute burdens intimate choices protected alongside the right to marry. The court considers whether the law reaches conduct within the zone of liberty interests recognized in marriage cases.
Ruby Rivera receives a bequest conditioned on marrying within a specified religious group. She challenges the restriction as an unconstitutional interference with her marital choice. The probate court weighs whether the condition unduly burdens the fundamental right to select a spouse.
Regina Robinson and her same-sex partner seek state recognition of their valid out-of-state marriage to obtain spousal benefits. Officials refuse on the ground that only opposite-sex unions receive full status. The couple sues, claiming the denial burdens the fundamental right to marry on equal terms.
Heightened scrutiny applies. The state must demonstrate sufficiently important interests and show that the restriction is closely tailored to advance only those interests.
Supporting sources
Yes. The fundamental right to marry includes same-sex couples and requires equal recognition of their marriages for purposes of legal incidents and benefits.
No. A statute requiring court approval for individuals with unpaid support before they may marry is not narrowly tailored and therefore violates the fundamental right.
Supporting sources
Yes. Racial restrictions on marriage are subject to the most rigid scrutiny and cannot stand unless supported by a purpose wholly independent of racial discrimination.
…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…