Mich. Comp. Laws » Michigan Compiled Laws / Chapter 551 / Act 168 of 1939
Michigan Compiled Laws

Mich. Comp. Laws § 551.272 (2026)

Marriage not between man and woman invalidated.

✓ current as of July 2026
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FOREIGN MARRIAGES


Act 168 of 1939


551.272 Marriage not between man and woman invalidated.

Sec. 2.

    This state recognizes marriage as inherently a unique relationship between a man and a woman, as prescribed by section 1 of chapter 83 of the Revised Statutes of 1846, being section 551.1 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, and therefore a marriage that is not between a man and a woman is invalid in this state regardless of whether the marriage is contracted according to the laws of another jurisdiction.

History: Add. 1996, Act 334, Imd. Eff. June 26, 1996

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1998–2023 · leading case: Nat'l Pride at Work, Inc v. Governor, 748 N.W.2d 524 (Mich. 2008).
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Nat'l Pride at Work, Inc v. Governor, 748 N.W.2d 524 (Mich. 2008). · cites it 2× “and therefore a marriage that is not between a man and a woman is invalid in this state regardless of whether the marriage is contracted according to the laws of another jurisdiction.”
Rohde v. Ann Arbor Pub. Schs., 737 N.W.2d 158 (Mich. 2007). · cites it 2× “] Also enacted at the same time was MCL 551.272, which provides: This state recognizes marriage as inherently a unique relationship between a man and a woman, as prescribed by [MCL 551.”
Nat'l Pride at Work, Inc v. Governor, 732 N.W.2d 139 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007). · cites it 2× “MCL 551.272. In addition, “[s]o far as its validity in law is concerned, marriage is a civil contract between a man and a woman, to which the consent of parties capable in law of contracting is essential.”
Carrie Pueblo v. Rachel Haas (Mich. 2023). · cites it 3× “1; MCL 551.272; Const 1963, art 1, § 25. Among the bases for extending the right to marry was that marriage safeguards children and families and draws meaning from the related rights of childrearing, procreation, and education.”
People v. Schmidt, 579 N.W.2d 431 (Mich. Ct. App. 1998). “15(2) and MCL 551.272; MSA 25.16. We thus conclude that Michigan’s spousal privileges must be extended to a common-law marriage contracted in a state that recognizes its validity.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.