I’m sorry, but legalizing same-sex marriage won’t do a thing to rescue marriage. But then, neither will its rejection. A marriage renaissance will only be possible when we repudiate Marvin v. Marvin and revitalize marriage’s importance by returning to a strict policy mandating that couples actually get married before acquiring conjugal rights.

How did marriage lose most of its meaning? How has it gone from being regarded as an institution that formed the conjugal bond, established nuclear families, knit vital social ties across extended familial units, and forged the necessary social cohesion for the sheltering and rearing of children, to a more-or-less optional affirmation of love?

True, the same-sex marriage debate has rekindled some interest in the institution and its purposes. But that imbroglio seems more like the last flaring of a star before it goes cold rather than a true rekindling.

The weakening of the institution has been ongoing for so many years that it is difficult to discern the proverbial tipping point. But I have a good candidate: The 1976 California Supreme Court case, Marvin v. Marvin.

By 1976, the sexual revolution was in full bloom. Couples that once would have at least pretended to “wait until marriage” openly “shacked up.” Young lovers declared they didn’t need a paper to bind their commitment. But the law remained clear: Only actual marriage would be treated as marriage. Absent “the paper,” you could cohabitate to your hearts’ content, but the relationship had no legal significance.

In California jurisprudence, such non-marital partnerships were called “meretricious,” a disrespecting term meant to highlight the unique social significance of the marital bond. There was one narrow exception. If a spouse believed in good faith that he or she were married—but, in fact, was not—the innocent “putative spouse” could still enforce “marital” rights. But those cases were rare.

Then, Michele Triola Marvin sued the movie star Lee Marvin for breach of contract. The two had lived together for several years. Michele even legally changed her last name. But there was no question that she and Lee were not married. Nor did she claim to be the putative spouse. Rather, Michele claimed Lee’s assurances of life-long support induced her to abandon her own career and devote herself to his care. The relationship now over, she wanted what had been promised.

The trial court quickly dismissed the suit. To obtain support or a share in a romantic partner’s property, you had to be married. Next case.

Then, unexpectedly, the California Supreme Court accepted the appeal.

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