Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf
Page Number: 18

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

13 

Opinion of the Court 

be  contradictory  “to  recognize  a  right  of  privacy  with  re-
spect to other matters of family life and not with respect to
the  decision  to  enter  the  relationship  that  is  the  founda-
tion of the family in our society.”  Zablocki, supra, at 386. 
Choices  about  marriage  shape  an  individual’s  destiny.
As  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Massachusetts  has
explained,  because  “it  fulfils  yearnings  for  security,  safe
haven,  and  connection  that  express  our  common  human- 
ity,  civil  marriage  is  an  esteemed  institution,  and  the
decision  whether  and  whom  to  marry  is  among  life’s  mo-
mentous acts of self-definition.”  Goodridge, 440 Mass., at 
322, 798 N. E. 2d, at 955. 

The  nature  of  marriage  is  that,  through  its  enduring
bond,  two  persons  together  can  find  other  freedoms,  such
as expression, intimacy, and spirituality.  This is true for 
all persons, whatever their sexual orientation.  See Wind-
sor,  570  U. S.,  at  ___–  ___  (slip  op.,  at  22–23).    There  is 
dignity  in  the  bond  between  two  men  or  two  women  who 
seek  to  marry  and  in  their  autonomy  to  make  such  pro-
found choices.  Cf. Loving, supra, at 12 (“[T]he freedom to 
marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with 
the individual and cannot be infringed by the State”).

A  second  principle  in  this  Court’s  jurisprudence  is  that 
the  right  to  marry  is  fundamental  because  it  supports  a
two-person union unlike any other in its importance to the
committed individuals.  This point was central to Griswold 
v.  Connecticut,  which  held  the  Constitution  protects  the 
right of married couples to use contraception.  381 U. S., at 
485.  Suggesting  that  marriage  is  a  right  “older  than  the 
Bill of Rights,” Griswold described marriage this way: 

“Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse,
hopefully  enduring,  and  intimate  to  the  degree  of  be-
ing sacred.  It is an association that promotes a way of
life,  not  causes;  a  harmony  in  living,  not  political 
faiths;  a  bilateral  loyalty,  not  commercial  or  social