ABSTRACT
The "right to marriage" means that the marriage of a US citizen receives legal recognition and thus can be a basis for claims, immunities, privileges, or entitlements. Regulation of the marital relation by the state has emerged out of a history wherein marriage was over determined by religious authorities, and common law marriage in the face of illegal unmarried cohabitation was the norm. The importance of marriage was stressed in Maynard v. Hill, 125 US 190: "Marriage, as creating the most important relation in life, as having more to do with the morals and civilization of a people than any other institution, has always been subject to the control of the legislature. Marriage is a civil contract that denotes a civil status. Maynard notwithstanding, freedom of choice has fostered increasingly broad personal rights as regards marriage as well as divorce, and these rights challenge the social and legal status and restrictions surrounding the "traditional marriage."
