2021 Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 765 - Marriage.
765.01 - A civil contract.
765.01 A civil contract. Marriage, so far as its validity at law is concerned, is a civil contract, to which the consent of the parties capable in law of contracting is essential, and which creates the legal status of husband and wife.
History: 1979 c. 32 s. 48; Stats. 1979 s. 765.01.
NOTE: In Wolf v. Walker, 26 F. Supp. 3d 866 (2014), the U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin declared that “Any Wisconsin statutory provisions, including those in Wisconsin Statutes chapter 765, that limit marriages to a `husband' and a `wife,' are unconstitutional as applied to same-sex couples." Affirmed. 766 F.3d 648. U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Case No. 14-2526, issued September 4, 2014. See also Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U. S. 644, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 192 L. Ed. 2d 609 (2015).
NOTE: See also Art. XIII, sec. 13, Marriage.
Same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry in all states. The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th amendment couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 192 L. Ed. 2d 609 (2015).
