This understanding has traditionally been protected by the law of both church and state. In 1878, the U.S. Supreme Court protected the right of the federal government to make bigamy a crime. In the case of Reynolds v. United States , a Morman claimed that polygamy, the acquiring of several wives, was his religious duty. The Court ruled that since such conduct was in violation of social duties, the state could prohibit it. No legal challenge to this right to enforce the social duties of marriage has since been successful.
Laws often have unintended consequences.
The following list outlines marital benefits that are recognized by most states. These are benefits that homosexual couples and cohabiting heterosexual couples have never been legally permitted to share. Homosexual couples argue that if they are not legally permitted to marry, the government should provide some other means of granting these benefits to them. In reaching its decision, the Vermont state court did not consider religious or moral questions about intimate same-sex relationships. Nor did the judges consider traditional reasons for limiting benefits to male-female couples and families which have always provided the basis upon which successful societies are established and preserved.