Also known as: nonmarital person · non-marital persons · non-marital person · unmarried persons
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Unmarried individuals. The constitutionally protected right of privacy in decisions about contraception belongs to each person regardless of marital status.
Jordan, an unmarried software engineer, attempted to use advanced contraception features on a state-regulated fertility app. The platform disabled those tools after Jordan indicated unmarried status, while married users retained full access. Jordan sued, claiming the marital-status distinction burdened the individual privacy right in contraceptive choice.
Craig and Nancy, a same-sex couple married in another state, applied for married-student housing at a public university. The university denied benefits because it refused to recognize their out-of-state marriage. They challenged the denial as unequal treatment of their marital status under the Fourteenth Amendment.
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A disabled adult child receiving benefits based on a deceased parent's earnings remarried. The agency terminated payments solely because of the new marital status. The child sued, arguing the marital-status rule produced arbitrary results unrelated to actual dependency.
After a long-term cohabitation ended, one partner sued the other for breach of an oral agreement to share property acquired during the relationship. The defendant argued no enforceable contract existed between nonmarital partners. The court considered whether the agreement could be enforced without relying on marital status.
Yes. The Supreme Court has held that the right of privacy inheres in the individual, married or single, and protects decisions whether to bear or beget a child from unwarranted governmental intrusion. A classification that withholds access to contraception from unmarried persons while granting it to married persons violates equal protection.
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No. When a program withholds subsidized contraceptives from unmarried recipients while providing them to married recipients, the classification burdens the individual privacy right and violates equal protection. The distinction treats similarly situated persons differently in a matter fundamentally affecting personal reproductive choice.
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Yes. The Due Process Clause protects the liberty of adults to engage in private, consensual, noncommercial sexual intimacy. A statute that criminalizes such conduct between unmarried persons rests on no legitimate state interest beyond moral disapproval and therefore fails rational basis review.
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…to the question whether one person is economically dependent on another. But a distinction between married persons and unmarried persons is of a different character. Both tradition and common experience support the conclusion that marriage is an event which normally marks an important change in economic status.…