Compiled by the Tahirih Justice Center (August 2020)
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Endnotes
1
Originally compiled by the Tahirih Justice Center (tahirih.org) with pro bono assistance from Hogan Lovells US, LLP in November 2016; last updated August 1, 2020.
2
This chart focuses on statutory requirements specifically for the issuance of marriage licenses to minors. Statutes that address whether marriages involving minors are “voidable,” whether
marriage automatically emancipates a minor, whether penalties apply to individuals (such as clerks or religious officiants) who do not follow statutory requirements for marriages involving
minors, or other related provisions, are generally outside the scope of this chart. Also outside the scope of this chart are statutes of general application to all marriage license applicants.
For a detailed, comparative analysis of provisions in all 50 states and DC that can leave children more vulnerable to forced marriage and the harms of early marriage, or help keep them safe,
please see Tahirih’s report, Falling Through the Cracks: How Laws Allow Child Marriage to Happen in Today’s America (August 2017; with appendices updated August 2020). Tahirih’s report,
a factsheet on the harmful impacts of child marriage, a compilation of 20 survivors’ stories, and other key resources are available at tahirih.org/childmarriage
. For more information about
the national legislative landscape or about how a particular state’s marriage-related laws or proposed reforms may impact children, contact the Tahirih Justice Center at policy@tahirih.org.
3
Thirteen states (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Washington State, West Virginia, Wyoming) require
judicial approval for all parties under age 16; depending on the state, there may be no age floor, or an age floor of either 14 (Alaska, North Carolina) or 15 (Hawaii, Kansas). Mississippi has
no age floor and requires judicial approval for males under age 17, but for females, only if they are under age 15. Maryland has an age floor of 15 and allows 15-year-olds to be married with
no judge involved, based only on proof of pregnancy/childbirth and parental consent.
4
Marriage license data obtained from several states, for example, reveals that judges have approved marriages of young children to much older adults. See, e.g., statistics and examples
cited in June Leffler, “As Child Marriages Drop, Hundreds Still Marry in Kentucky Each Year
” (Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, August 29, 2017); Anjali Tsui, Dan Nolan and Chris
Amico, “Child Marriage in America: By the Numbers” (PBS Frontline, July 6, 2017); and Nicholas Kristof, “11 Years Old, A Mom, and Pushed to Marry Her Rapist in Florida” (New York Times
Op-Ed, May 26, 2017) and An American 13-Year-Old, Pregnant, and Married to her Rapist (New York Times Op-Ed, June 1, 2018).
5
This number does not include South Carolina, though a new law relating to marriage-age has been enacted there. On May 13, 2019, South Carolina’s governor signed SB 196 into law,
effective upon signature, to clarify that South Carolina has a firm minimum marriage age of 16. The legislation responded to investigative reporting that confirmed that judicial interpretations
of prior minimum marriage age statutes had been inconsistent, and that some probate judges were granting marriage licenses in case of pregnancy notwithstanding the fact that a girl was
younger than age 16. See Lauren Sausser, “
In SC, pregnant girls as young as 12 can marry. There’ve been 7,000 child brides in 20 years” (The Post and Courier, June 21, 2018).
As interpreted by the South Carolina Office of the Attorney General, legislative reforms back in 1997 had already instituted age 16 as the minimum marriage age (see S.C. Office of the
Attorney General, 1997 WL 665423 (S.C.A.G. Sept. 2, 1997), available at http://www.scag.gov/archives/category/opinions/1997opinions)
). However, the 1997 reforms did not harmonize
all statutory provisions related to marriage age, such as a pregnancy exception to age 18 that was set forth in Section 20-1-300 of the 1976 Code. By definitively repealing Section 20-1-300,
South Carolina has now made clear that there is a firm age floor of 16, regardless of pregnancy. But because the new law simply underscores what was already the legislature’s intent in
enacting earlier reforms, South Carolina is not included in the tally of 25 states that have moved since 2016 to end or limit child marriage.
6
This compilation reflects all minimum marriage-age reform bills that had become law by August 1, 2020. States that have made legislative reforms to end or limit child marriage, in order of
effective dates, are: Virginia (July 1, 2016); New York (July 20, 2017); Texas (September 1, 2017); Connecticut (October 1, 2017); Delaware (May 9, 2018); Tennessee (May 21, 2018); New
Jersey (June 22, 2018); Florida (July 1, 2018); Kentucky (July 14, 2018); Arizona (August 3, 2018); Missouri (August 28, 2018); New Hampshire (January 1, 2019); California (January 1,
2019); Ohio (April 8, 2019); Utah (May 14, 2019); Georgia (July 1, 2019); Arkansas (July 24, 2019); Louisiana (August 1, 2019); Colorado (August 2, 2019); Nevada (October 1, 2019);
Maine (June 16, 2020; Indiana (July 1, 2020); Idaho (July 1, 2020); Pennsylvania (July 7, 2020); and Minnesota (August 1, 2020).
Alabama is the only state that has arguably regressed in its approach to child marriage over this time period. SB 69
, a bill signed into law on May 31, 2019 and effective August 29, 2019,
abolished across the board the requirement that marriage licenses be issued by probate judges. Previously, a probate judge was at least nominally involved in the process of granting a
marriage license for the marriage of a minor, required to verify the consent of both the minor’s parents/guardians. Now the parental consent requirement can be satisfied by one parent or
guardian simply filing an affidavit with the court.
7
The 17 states where all minors must obtain judicial approval before they can marry are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts,
Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
In other states, judges may be involved only if minors are younger than a certain age threshold, or in certain circumstances.