Sixty years ago, it was just common sense. The best environment for raising children was in a married household. 

But starting in the 1960s and then accelerating in the 1970s, elite opinion began to shift. In 1965, when the Supreme Court held that states could not violate a married couple’s First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment right to buy contraception, the majority Griswold v. Connecticut opinion called marriage a “sacred” institution that promoted “harmony” and “loyalty” in the United States.