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, et. al. v. Walker, et. al., 26 F. Supp. 3d 866, the United States 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. ___, 135 S. Ct. 2071, 191 L. Ed. 2d 953 (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. ___, 135 S. Ct. 2071, 191 L. Ed. 2d 953 (2015).