Which of the following is a requirement of the confidential marital communications privilege?

The correct answer is that the holder of the privilege can be either spouse. This reflects the nature of the confidential marital communications privilege, which is designed to encourage open and honest communication between spouses by protecting certain communications made during the marriage from being disclosed in legal proceedings.

In this context, the privilege applies to confidential communications exchanged between spouses during their marriage, meaning either spouse can assert the privilege to prevent the other from testifying about those communications. This bipartisan aspect of the privilege reinforces the idea that both parties have a vested interest in maintaining the confidentiality of their exchanges.

The other statements do not accurately capture the requirements of the privilege. For instance, while it is true that the marriage must be ongoing at the time the privilege is invoked for certain aspects, the specific requirement is not solely that marriage must exist at the time of trial. Additionally, the privilege is not strictly limited to the witness-spouse—the essence of the privilege is broader. Finally, the privilege does not cover all communications but specifically those that are confidential, aligning with the aim to protect private dialogue between married individuals.