Moe v. Dinkins

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit · 1982 · Family Law

Family LawMarriageMinorsDue Processparental consentminor marriagedue processright to marry

Facts

Plaintiffs challenged New York Domestic Relations Law § 15, which requires parental consent for male applicants aged 16 to 18 and female applicants aged 14 to 18 seeking marriage licenses, and also requires judicial approval for females aged 14 to 16. They argued that the statute deprived them of liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The appeal also involved plaintiffs' claim that the statute unconstitutionally affected minors who wished to marry in order to legitimate a child born out of wedlock. The statute applied to all minors within the specified age categories, not only to minors with illegitimate children.

Issue

Whether New York's statutory requirement that certain minors obtain parental consent, and in some cases judicial approval, before marrying violates the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. More specifically, the question was whether such restrictions on minors' marriages must satisfy heightened scrutiny or only rational basis review.

Rule

Restrictions on marriage may receive heightened scrutiny when they burden the right to marry, but the right of minors to marry has not been viewed as a fundamental right deserving strict scrutiny. Therefore, a state parental-consent requirement for minors' marriages is constitutional if it bears a rational relation to legitimate state interests.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

In Ohio, a statute requires anyone under 18 to obtain written parental consent before a county clerk may issue a marriage license. Seventeen-year-old Elena Ruiz and seventeen-year-old Marcus Bell challenge the law under the Due Process Clause, arguing that because marriage is a fundamental right, the statute must survive strict scrutiny.

What is the strongest response to Elena and Marcus's due process challenge?

Explanation. The majority held that although some marriage restrictions affecting adults have received heightened scrutiny, the right of minors to marry has not been viewed as a fundamental right deserving strict scrutiny. Therefore, a parental-consent requirement for minors is evaluated under rational basis review and is constitutional if rationally related to legitimate state interests. (Derived from Moe v. Dinkins (n.d.).)