Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf
Page Number: 46.0

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

7 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

maintenance  and  education  of  children.”  1  An  American 
Dictionary of the English Language (1828).  An influential 
19th-century  treatise  defined  marriage  as  “a  civil  status, 
existing in one man and one woman legally united for life 
for those civil and social purposes which are  based in the 
distinction of sex.”  J. Bishop, Commentaries on the Law of
Marriage  and  Divorce  25  (1852).    The  first  edition  of 
Black’s  Law  Dictionary  defined  marriage  as  “the  civil
status  of  one  man  and one  woman  united  in  law  for  life.” 
Black’s  Law  Dictionary  756  (1891)  (emphasis  deleted). 
The dictionary maintained essentially that same definition
for the next century.

This  Court’s  precedents  have  repeatedly  described 
marriage  in  ways  that  are  consistent  only  with  its  tradi-
tional  meaning.  Early  cases  on  the  subject  referred  to
marriage  as  “the  union  for  life  of  one  man  and  one  wom-
an,”  Murphy  v.  Ramsey,  114  U. S.  15,  45  (1885),  which 
forms “the foundation of the family and of society, without 
which  there  would  be  neither  civilization  nor  progress,” 
Maynard  v.  Hill,  125  U. S.  190,  211  (1888).    We  later 
described marriage as “fundamental to our very existence 
and survival,” an understanding that necessarily implies a
procreative component.  Loving v. Virginia, 388 U. S. 1, 12 
(1967);  see  Skinner  v.  Oklahoma  ex  rel.  Williamson,  316 
U. S.  535,  541  (1942).    More  recent  cases  have  directly 
connected the right to marry with the “right to procreate.” 
Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U. S. 374, 386 (1978).

As  the  majority  notes,  some  aspects  of  marriage  have
changed  over  time.  Arranged  marriages  have  largely 
given way to pairings based on romantic love.  States have 
replaced  coverture,  the  doctrine  by  which  a  married  man 
and  woman  became  a  single  legal  entity,  with  laws  that
respect  each  participant’s  separate  status.    Racial  re-
strictions  on  marriage,  which  “arose  as  an  incident  to 
slavery” to promote “White Supremacy,” were repealed by
many  States  and  ultimately  struck  down  by  this  Court.