Once an individual is married, the person must be legally released from the relationship by either death, divorce, or annulment before he or she may remarry. The majority of states limit people to one living husband or wife at a time and will not issue marriage licenses to anyone with a living spouse. Thus, establishing that marriage is a civil right. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. One power that the states do not have, however, is that of prohibiting marriage in the absence of a valid reason. Entering into a marriage changes the legal status of both parties and gives both husband and wife new rights and obligations.
The Supreme Court has held that states are permitted to reasonably regulate the institution by prescribing who is allowed to marry and how the marriage can be dissolved. Marriage is chiefly regulated by the states. Today, the underlying concept that marriage is a legal contract still remains, but due to changes in society the legal obligations are not the same. The wife's obligations were maintaining a home, living in the home, having sexual relations with her husband, and rearing the couple's children. Traditionally, the husband had a duty to provide a safe house, pay for necessities such as food and clothing, and live in the house. Marriage was viewed as the basis of the family unit and vital to the preservation of morals and civilization. In the English common law tradition from which our legal doctrines and concepts have developed, a marriage was a contract based upon a voluntary private agreement by a man and a woman to become husband and wife.
Marriage is the legal union of a couple as spouses. The basic elements of a marriage are: (1) the parties' legal ability to marry each other, (2) mutual consent of the parties, and (3) a marriage contract as required by law.
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