ABSTRACT
American conservatives pride themselves on moral clarity. And that clarity is nowhere greater than on the topic of marriage and family. The essentials of marriage are, they say, well-defined: it unites a man and a woman; it provides the foundation for a family that may include biological or adopted children; it assigns different roles to men and women; and it is a union for life, indissoluble except for the most grievous offenses. The traditional view of marriage in the United States has roots in Christian religious views and church law. The English common law, which provided the basis for the marriage laws of most US states, reflected the tenets of marriage promulgated by the Anglican Church. Liberty, the first foundational value of a liberal polity, is central to the question of who is allowed to marry. Some exclusion is relatively uncontroversial, such as prohibiting marriage below a certain age, with a close relative, or while in prison.
