The Constitutional Status of Marriage, Kinship, and Sexual Privacy -- Balancing the Individual and Social Interests

Authors

Bruce C. Hafen, Brigham Young UniversityFollow

Abstract

Today's lopsided competition between the individual and social interests has made the law a party to the contemporary haze that clouds our vision of what a family is or should be. In that sense, recent legal developments have contributed to the crisis Stanley Hauerwas has identified regarding American family life today - our inability to define "what kind of family should exist" and our inability to articulate ''why we should think of [the family] as our most basic moral institution."

In response to those two questions, this Article considers whether, as a constitutional matter, the courts should recognize claims by unrelated individuals or groups who seek the same legal protection as that given to formal relationships based on legal marriage or kinship.

Recommended Citation

Bruce C. Hafen, The Constitutional Status of Marriage, Kinship, and Sexual Privacy -- Balancing the Individual and Social Interests, 81 Mich. L. Rev. 463 (1983).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol81/iss3/2