Loophole in new Arkansas marriage law allows anyone of any age to marry

simba · August 17, 2007, 4:37pm

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. A law passed this year allows Arkansans of any age – even infants – to marry if their parents agree

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.”

<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293636,00.html[/url]”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293636,00.html</a>

JHS · August 17, 2007, 5:04pm

There is a strong whiff of b.s. (not Bachelor of Science) to this story. Most states allow at least some teenagers below 18, whether or not they are pregnant, to marry with parental consent. The imposition of a pregnancy requirement for underage marriage with parental consent is highly problematic, since for each pregnant 16 year-old there is someone else – who is highly unlikely to be pregnant, but in many cases is under 18 – involved in the matter. It would be a weird law that permitted a 16-year-old girl to marry, but not to marry the father of her child. It would also be a weird law that did not permit the parents of an already-born child to marry. (Assuming in all cases consent of the parents of minors, or legal emancipation.)

So . . . there are about a dozen things wrong with that statute, but taking out the word “not” adds about a dozen more. What’s even stranger is that no one has to write on a blank slate or anything in drafting a marriage law. They don’t vary that much state to state. You can toggle the toggles pretty easily without messing the whole thing up. It looks like someone screwed up big time.

conyat · August 17, 2007, 5:12pm

Maybe the law is meant to allow pregnant teenaged girls to marry each other. :)

Somehow, I doubt it’s tacit acknowledgement of the fact that most teenagers who get pregnant are impregnated by adult males. (And the younger the teen, the older the man who impregnates her.)

I wonder what’s up with this, too.

1sokkermom · August 17, 2007, 7:17pm

…And this legislation was drafted by Bill Clinton (formerly of Little Rock) many years ago. The legislation goes on to state that married people can marry interns too, with their spouse’s permission. :D

citygirlsmom · August 17, 2007, 7:27pm

this law was passed this year, sokkermom, nice try at humor though

does it take 16 years to pass a law in Arkansas?

citygirlsmom · August 17, 2007, 7:28pm

and why does a typo have to wait for so long to be corrected? interesting state, Arkansas

1sokkermom · August 17, 2007, 8:14pm

I said the bill was drafted by Clinton, not finalized.

“does it take 16 years to pass a law in Arkansas?”

Maybe ;)

conyat · August 17, 2007, 8:23pm

If we’re going to talk about inappropriate behavior, nothing Clinton did in Arkansas tops Huckabee’s conduct in the Dumond case.

interesteddad · August 17, 2007, 9:47pm

Speaking of Huckabee, he had some nice praise for the Clintons today (from the USA Today):

"You know, I’ve never hated the Clintons. I still don’t, I have great respect for them. He made a lot of mistakes — a lot of personal ones — but you know something that I think should not be forgotten. There’s two things about Bill Clinton I tell Republicans, it drives them nuts, but here it is.

"Number one, don’t get it lost on you that a kid out of a very small, Southern rural state aspired to be President of the United States. This kid came from a dysfunctional family — alcoholic abusive father. And yet he didn’t just aspire, he was elected president of the United States not once, but twice. That is an affirmation of the system. And it’s a wonderful testament to give to every kid in America that no matter where you’ve come from, you’ve got an opportunity to do something extraordinary.

“The second thing, and this’ll really wrangle, again, some of my Republican colleagues. Bill Clinton and Hillary went through some horrible experiences in their marriage, because of some of the reckless behavior that he has admitted he had. I’m not defending him on that — it’s indefensible. But they kept their marriage together. And a lot of the Republicans who have condemned them, and who talk about their platform of family values, interestingly didn’t keep their own families together.”

simba · August 17, 2007, 9:50pm

It took only 4 replies to remember the most beloved president by the republicans.

citygirlsmom · August 17, 2007, 11:08pm

yes, 14 years later, and nobody looked at the bill and made any changes to the draft, so it is all Clinton’s fault

yep, that is how republicans write bills, so they think it is how its done, no one touches a bill ever after the “draft” yes, draft

conyat · August 17, 2007, 11:35pm

I think sokkermom was kidding. Though it’s hard to tell with all the b-b-but Clinton’s people throw around.

interesteddad · August 18, 2007, 1:06am

Speaking of Arkansas sixteen years later, Rasmussen released some head-to-head general election matchup polling for the state today:

Among registered voters in Arkansas:

Clinton 55%
Giuliani 37%

Clinton 55%
Thompson 36%

Clinton 56%
McCain 33%

Clinton 60%
Romney 28%

I am shocked at these numbers. I figured that Bill might be able to work his magic and eek out a win for Hillary in Arkansas, but I was assuming it would be an uphill battle. Looks like I was wrong. They luv them some Clinton in Arkansas.

That’s 6 red state electoral college votes. Cha-ching.

thisoldman · August 18, 2007, 1:37am

We who are from Arkansas, believe that what happens in the family stays in the family. Nobody tells us what we should or should not believe or do.

Vyse · August 18, 2007, 2:38am

i-dad, I can see Arkansas going to the GOP once one of them picks Huckabee as their VP

conyat · August 18, 2007, 2:45am

I was about to ask how Clinton polls vs. Huckabee.

I just find it hard to believe that anyone but the most extremist GOP’ers would support him after the Dumond incident. It could so easily have been their wives or daughters murdered instead of the Missouri women.

interesteddad · August 18, 2007, 4:08am

I don’t think a VP is going to close those margins. You know that there will be a special Hill 'n Bill Show at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock sometime during the campaign.

Not that it really matters. Arkansas flipping red to blue would only be gravy in the electoral college count. The math is really, really bad for the Republicans. The Democrats only need Kerry’s states plus either Florida or Ohio. Additional red states that are very much in play are Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado. The anti-Latino bigotry of the 93% white Republican party is killing them in many of these states and could kill them for a generation as minority populations continue to increase.

The Republicans are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Nominate Rudy and they tighten some of the purple state races, but the evangelical base (the Republican turnout machine) sits on its hands. Nominate Fred or Newt to rally the base and they get slaughtered in the purple states.

For some stunning numbers, check out the Field Poll for the California primary released today.

Overall
Clinton 49%
Obama 19%
Edwards 10%

age 18 - 39
Clinton 47%
Obama 24%
Edwards 10%
Others 6%
Undecided 13%

age 40 - 64
Clinton 50%
Obama 19%
Edwards 10%
Others 11%
Undecided 10%

65 or older
Clinton 49%
Obama 11%
Edwards 10%
Others 10%
Undecided 20%

Men
Clinton 47%
Obama 16%
Edwards 11%
Others 12%
Undecided 14%

Women
Clinton 50%
Obama 21%
Edwards 9%
Others 8%
Undecided 12%

White non-Hispanic
Clinton 43%
Obama 18%
Edwards 11%
Others 14%
Undecided 14%

Latino
Clinton 63%
Obama 14%
Edwards 12%
Others 3%
Undecided 8%

African-American/Asian
Clinton 52%
Obama 28%
Edwards 5%
Others 0%
Undecided 15%

Vyse · August 18, 2007, 4:54am

I think you underestimate the evangelical right. They’ll ***** all the way to the polls, and then vote for Rudy anyway. There’s too much on the line not to. 2 liberal Supreme Court justices will retire between 08 and 16, and a conservative president could get the court to go 7-2 conservative. Kerry just barely won Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon just barely. And a social moderate white male running against a woman is going to give the Dems a nightmare.

To make this easier though, I’m hoping Obama quits making naive and idiotic foreign policy comments, beats Hillary in the primaries, and then faces Giuliani (where he’ll lose the state of New York, and thus the entire election.)

Allmusic · August 18, 2007, 5:38am

The war debacle is pretty much a Republican problem, which is why so many in the party are jumping ship from Bush, so as to salvage their political capital before the next election.

The war is on people’s minds more than all your social wedge issues, Vyse. We shall see how it all unfolds.

Vyse · August 18, 2007, 6:29am

The war isn’t as bad for the Republicans as you think. All they have to do during the primaries is say they support the troops, and need to hear the update from gen petraeus before they can decide what they’d do as commander and chief. Then once the primaries are over, all they have to do is say that Petraeus’s report wasn’t as positive as they had hoped it would be, and they now favor a withdrawal.

In fact, if Paul were to get the nomination, he’d arouse more support from the anti-war crowd, considering that Clinton voted for the war, and told the NYT that she’d leave some troops in Iraq indefinitely.

Loophole in new Arkansas marriage law allows anyone of any age to marry

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