Marriage and Its Critics (“Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off ”)

S hould we end civil marriage? Why would anyone suggest such a thing? On what grounds? What would our world look like, were we to do so? One reason we might do so-and one that well frames the major arguments

that have been pressed toward this end, and that I will examine in this chapter-is that civil marriage, even liberally reformed so as to include same-sex couples in its purview, is unconstitutional. It is fundamentally at odds with some of our most basic constitutional ideals.