The Respect for Marriage Act: What It Does and Doesn’t Do

The Respect for Marriage Act, signed into law on December 13, 2022, requires the federal government and every state to recognize any marriage between two people that was legal where it was performed, regardless of the spouses’ sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.¹ It replaced the Defense of Marriage Act, wrote a gender-neutral definition of marriage into federal law, and built a statutory backstop so married couples keep their protections even if the Supreme Court’s marriage rulings change. It also protects religious organizations from being forced to participate in marriages that conflict with their beliefs.

Your Marriage Travels With You

The most important piece of the law sits in 28 U.S.C. § 1738C. No person acting under color of state law can deny full faith and credit to a marriage between two individuals on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.² If your marriage was legal where you got married, every other state has to treat it as legal. A clerk, judge, or state agency employee cannot refuse to honor it.

The statute also bars state officials from denying any right or claim that arises from the marriage just because local law would not have allowed the marriage in the first place.² That language reaches into inheritance disputes, hospital visitation, custody, and any other benefit that flows from being legally married. A surviving spouse who relocates does not lose standing because the new state has different views about who should be able to marry.

What this creates, in practical terms, is a portable legal status. Couples who marry in one state and later move for work, family, or retirement carry their full legal recognition with them. Even if a future Supreme Court decision let some states stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, any couple already married elsewhere would still be recognized as married in that state under federal law.

How the Federal Government Recognizes Your Marriage

Federal law now uses a “place of celebration” standard. Under 1 U.S.C. § 7, a marriage between two people is recognized for every federal purpose if it was valid where it was entered into. For marriages performed outside the United States, there is one added requirement: the marriage must be one that could have been entered into in at least one U.S. state.³ Only the law in effect at the time of the ceremony matters, so a state changing its rules later cannot retroactively invalidate a union.

Tax Filing

The IRS follows the same place-of-celebration approach through Revenue Ruling 2013-17. A marriage is valid for federal tax purposes as long as it was legal where performed, no matter where the couple lives now.⁴ Married couples can file jointly, and that option is now guaranteed by federal statute rather than left to local discretion.

Social Security Survivor Benefits

A surviving spouse generally must have been married to the deceased worker for at least nine months before death to qualify for Social Security survivor benefits.⁵ Same-sex partners who could not marry, or could not meet that nine-month requirement, because of unconstitutional state bans may still qualify. Under the Ely v. Saul and Thornton v. Commissioner decisions, the Social Security Administration applies special rules for these cases.⁶ Anyone previously denied benefits under those circumstances can ask the agency to reopen the claim, even years later.

Interracial Marriages Are Covered Too

The Act is not limited to same-sex couples. The full faith and credit provision lists race, ethnicity, and national origin alongside sex as prohibited grounds for refusing to recognize a marriage.² For the first time, the core protection of Loving v. Virginia is written directly into federal statute. If Loving were ever revisited, state officials would still be federally barred from refusing to honor an interracial marriage performed where it was legal.

What the Act Does Not Do

Knowing the limits of this law matters as much as knowing what it protects.

It does not require any state to issue marriage licenses. If the Supreme Court overturned Obergefell v. Hodges, a state could again refuse to marry same-sex couples within its borders. The Act only guarantees recognition of marriages performed where they were legal. A couple in a restrictive state would need to travel elsewhere to marry, then bring the license home for recognition. The right to marry in every state still depends on Obergefell.
It does not create obligations for private businesses. Bakeries, florists, photographers, and other for-profit vendors are not addressed by the Act. Their rights and duties around wedding services remain governed by state and local anti-discrimination laws, which vary widely.
It does not recognize polygamous marriages. Section 7(b) states that nothing in the Act requires or authorizes federal recognition of marriages between more than two individuals.⁷
It does not change state divorce rules. Recognition of a marriage and the ability to end one are separate issues. Most states require a residency period before a couple can file for divorce, and those rules are unaffected.

The licensing limit is the biggest gap. Obergefell and the Respect for Marriage Act work together: one guarantees the right to marry, the other guarantees the marriage will be recognized everywhere. Lose one and the system still partially works. Lose both and the protections collapse.

Religious Organizations Are Shielded

Section 6 protects nonprofit religious groups, including churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, faith-based social agencies, and religious schools. None can be required to provide services, space, goods, or accommodations for the celebration of any marriage. A refusal to provide those services cannot form the basis of any civil claim or cause of action.⁷

Section 7 addresses a concern that circulated heavily during the debate: whether the IRS might revoke tax-exempt status from religious groups holding traditional views on marriage. The statute prohibits that outcome directly. The Act cannot be used to deny or alter any benefit, status, or right unrelated to a marriage itself, including tax-exempt status, tax treatment, educational funding, grants, contracts, loans, scholarships, licenses, certifications, or accreditation. All existing constitutional and statutory religious liberty protections, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, are preserved.⁷

What to Do If a State Official Refuses to Recognize Your Marriage

The Act gives you two enforcement paths. The Attorney General may bring a civil action in federal district court against anyone who violates the full faith and credit requirements. You also have a private right of action: any individual harmed by a violation can file their own federal lawsuit for declaratory and injunctive relief.² You do not need to wait for the federal government to act on your behalf.

A court can declare the marriage valid and order the state official to recognize it. The Act itself does not authorize money damages, so the relief is aimed at fixing the recognition problem rather than punishing the official. If a clerk refuses to record your marriage, a state agency will not process a benefit tied to your spouse, or a court refuses to accept your marital status in a legal proceeding, that is the kind of violation the statute was written to address.

1
govinfo. Public Law 117-228 – Respect for Marriage Act
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1738C – Certain Acts, Records, and Proceedings and the Effect Thereof
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 1 USC 7 – Marriage
4
Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2013-17
5
Social Security Administration. GN 00305.100 – Marital Relationship Duration
6
Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits for Same-Sex Partners and Spouses
7
govinfo. Respect for Marriage Act – Public Law 117-228