What the Supreme Court Has Said About Marriage
Loving v. Virginia
“Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival…. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.”
The United States Supreme Court described four Attributes of marriage in a 1987 case that struck down a state’s attempt to restrict prisoner marriage. Turner v. Safle, 482 U.S. 78, 94 (1987). It describes marriage as:
- An expression of emotional support and public commitment.
- For some, an act with spiritual significance, and for some the exercise of a religious faith
- A relationship with the expectation that for most the marriage will be consummated; and
- A relationship that can receive tangible benefits including government benefits and property rights.
Turner v. Safle, 482 U.S. 78, 94 (1987).