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10 U. Md. L.J. Race, Religion, Gender & Class 375 (2010)
Let My Love Open the Door: The Case for Extending Marital Privileges to Unmarried Cohabitants

handle is hein.journals/margin10 and id is 379 raw text is: LET MY LOVE OPEN THE DOOR: THE CASE FOR EXTENDING MARITAL PRIVILEGES TO UNMARRIED COHABITANTS JULIA L. CARDOZO* Catherine Acker and Samuel Holly lived together for twenty- five years and held themselves out as a married couple throughout that period.I The two states in which they lived over the course of their relationship did not recognize common law marriage.2 In 1993, Catherine was a defendant in a criminal trial for robbery and unlawful use of a firearm.3 Samuel agreed to testify against her. Blindsided by the idea that intimate conversations with her longtime partner could be used against her at trial, Catherine sought refuge in the marital communications privilege to bar Samuel's testimony.5 Even though a claim of a marital privilege generally must be supported by a valid marriage, she argued that it should extend to their relationship because it was akin to a marriage except for the technical legal status. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit considered Catherine's plea. First, it acknowledged the societal trend of couples choosing to cohabitate without marrying;7 however, the Court disagreed with Catherine and followed the bright-line rule that marital privileges cannot be invoked in the absence of a valid marriage.' The Court thus rejected Catherine's privilege claim, and permitted Samuel's testimony.9 Copyright 0 2011 by Julia Cardozo. *University of Maryland School of Law Juris Doctor candidate, 2011. Middlebury College, B.A., History, 2006. Special thanks to Professor Jana Singer for her guidance and encouragement, and to my family for their constant support. I. United States v. Acker, 52 F.3d 509, 514 (4th Cir. 1995). 2. Id. at 514. They lived in New York and North Carolina. Id. 3. Id.at5ll. 4. Id.at5ll-12. 5. Id. 6. Id. at 514. 7. Id. at 515 (noting that present day experience may indicate that more couples are living together without the benefit of marriage). 8. Id. (holding that the defendant must have assumed both the privileges and the responsibilities of a valid marriage under the law of the state in which the privilege is asserted). 9. Id. at 515.

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