Error in Ark. law allows kids to marry
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ A law passed this year allows Arkansans of any age ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ even infants ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ to marry if their parents agree, and the governor may have to call a special session to fix the mistake, lawmakers said Friday. The legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry but also allow pregnant teenagers to marry with parental consent, bill sponsor Rep. Will Bond said. An extraneous “not” in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it…. “It’s clearly not the intent to allow 10-year-olds or 11-year-olds to get married,” Bond said. “The legislation was screwed up.”…. The bill reads: “In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage.”
OK, so I understand that mistakes happen, and that the crafting of legislation is often an imperfect process fraught with unintended consequences, but not even I can let this one pass without ridicule. You’d think that normally lucid, generally well-meaning adults would have the native intelligence and wherewithal to at least be able to write a law that wouldn’t allow eight- and nine-year-olds to wed. Not that this sort of thing will actually happen, I suppose, but this IS Arkansas we’re talking about, so I suppose we can’t rule out the possibility.
Hey, if they’re old enough to work on the farm….
