Can anyone please direct me to law that supports marriage contract in US?

Marriage is a civil agreement between parties and is generally regulated by the state. The federal government, for the most part, does not play a part in a marriage.

This site should help get you any information you need.

.

As another Jelly stated, marriage for the most part is governed by the state, not the federal government. Each state has specific fees and laws regarding how old you must be, if there is a waiting period between filing for your marriage license and getting married, and if there are any blood tests necessary (I think that is a thing of the past). Some states still have rules on the books about how closely related the two people are.

Legal marriage is a civil matter, but clergy can be licensed by the state to officiate. It’s very easy to get your certificate to conduct marriages.

When you get married you basically have no idea how the laws work, most people anyway. It really becomes significant when you get a divorce. If you marry in Florida, but then move to California, and then wind up getting a divorce, your divorce is controlled by the laws in the state you live in at the time of the divorce.

Edit: one thing to know is there is an agreement between states to accept marriages in other states as valid. So, when you marry in Florida, all other 50 states, DC, and US territories accept Florida’s legal marriage the same as their own. This was challenged with gay marriage, because states were saying I don’t care that the hay couple is legally married in Florida, we don’t have civil gay marriage in X state. That has been taken care of fairly recently when the US Supreme Court basically said gay marriage is legal in the US period.

The marriage license mentioned by other answers is really nothing more than a form to register the marriage with the state, and it must be signed by the official, the couple, and one or two witnesses. It simply states that person and person were married in this place on this date. The information is then added to the state data bank.

The actual marriage contract between the couple is usually much more informal, stated orally by each person and not enforceable.

There is also a legal form called the prenuptial which is a legal contract prepared by a lawyer which must be signed by both parties and notarized.This type of contract is enforceable by law.

There are many state and Federal laws regarding various actions, such as insurance coverage, inheritance, hospital visitation and types of ownership of property.

@JLeslie “Edit: one thing to know is there is an agreement between states to accept marriages in other states as valid. So, when you marry in Florida, all other 50 states, DC, and US territories accept Florida’s legal marriage the same as their own.”

Well it’s not so much an agreement between the states as it is Constitutional law. Specifically the Full Faith and Credit Clause (Article IV, section I). Whether it’s a marriage, a divorce, a custody agreement, a contractual agreement, et all legal rulings, proceedings, etc in a state must be honored by every other state in the union.

Although, this particular clause was not invoked by the SCOTUS in Obergefell v Hodges (the ruling which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States)*. In Obergefell v Hodges the SCOTUS cited the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The same clause cited by the SCOTUS in Loving v Virginia (1967), which struck down state laws banning interracial marriage.

(*Before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v Hodges I had once figured that, with the hodge-podge of various state laws regarding gay marriage springing up, the Full Faith and Credit Clause would eventually be invoked to force one state to recognize the legal marriage of a same-sex couple married in another state. Thus making same-sex marriage de facto legal in that state and all others. Happily I turned out to be wrong there.)

@All Thanks a lot for all of your answers! They’re very useful. Now I have understood a lot more about marriage system in US.

@Darth Thanks.

I forgot to mention that there is something called “Marriage License” in US. Is it still necessary to get one before you can get married? Must one get it first before he/she can obtain marriage certificate?

Yes, you need a marriage license to have a civil marriage. It’s not like a driver’s license. It isn’t a card you carry. It’s just basically applying to get married. You answer a few questions, sign on the dotted line, pay, and then you have your license (assuming everything is in order). The license authorizes you, or “gives you license” to get married. Afterwards, once married, a marriage certificate is filed with the local government.

@JLeslie Thanks a lot for your reply. I am not a married person yet so I can assume naught about this thing lol.

Where do you live?

@Unofficial_Member “I forgot to mention that there is something called “Marriage License” in US. Is it still necessary to get one before you can get married? Must one get it first before he/she can obtain marriage certificate?”

If you want your marriage recognized by the state, yes. If you don’t care about that sort of thing then, no, not really. My wife and I have never gotten legally married (don’t really need the state to validate our relationship), but we did, nonetheless, have a wedding.

^^Exactly what he said. The license and official certificate filed with the state once married is solely about legal (civil) marriage. You can have a religious wedding or just hold your own wedding without the license if you don’t care about the legal protections civil marriage gives you. Most people actually do the whole civil but if they want to call themselves and present themselves as married, @Darth is more of an exception.

In America, unlike some other countries, clergy can officiate both the religious and legal marriage at once. We have separation of church and state, and then we allow all this grey area in multiple realms, including getting married.