NY State Senate Bill 2019-S7931

Senate Bill S7931

2019-2020 Legislative Session

Increases the age of consent for purposes of marriage to the age of eighteen; and repeals certain provisions of law relating thereto

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Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Mar 03, 2020	referred to judiciary

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2019-S7931 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A8447
Current Committee:: Senate Judiciary
Law Section:: Domestic Relations Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §§15-a, 13-b, 25 & 7, rpld §15 sub 3, §11-a sub 1 ¶c, §84, Dom Rel L
Versions Introduced in 2021-2022 Legislative Session:: S3086, A3891

2019-S7931 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Increases the age of consent for purposes of marriage to the age of eighteen; and repeals certain provisions of law relating thereto.

2019-S7931 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S7931

SPONSOR: SALAZAR
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the domestic relations law, in relation to increasing
the age of consent for purposes of marriage to the age of eighteen; and
to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto

 
PURPOSE:

To increase the age of consent, in relation to marriage, to the age of
eighteen.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 15-a of the domestic relations law, prohibiting
any marriage in which either party is under the age of eighteen.

Section 2 amends section 13-b of the domestic relations law to conform
with raising the age of marriage to eighteen, by removing the prior

provision stating that parties must be at least seventeen in order for
clergyman or magistrate to solemnize such marriages without waiting
specified periods of time. This provision would no longer be relevant
when this bill is enacted.

Section 3 amends section 25 of the domestic relations law to conform
with raising the age of marriage t eighteen by removing a provision that
referred to marriages between minors or with a minor. This provision
would no longer be relevant when this bill is enacted.

Section 4 amends subdivision 1 of section 7 of the domestic relations
law, removing text in order to make any marriage where either party is
under the age of eighteen voidable. This provision would no longer be
relevant when this bill is enacted.

Section 5 REPEALS subdivision 3 of section 15 of the domestic relations
law, which relates to criteria that must be met prior to a town or city
clerk issued a marriage license to a couple when either party is less
than eighteen years of age but at least seventeen. This provision would
no longer be relevant when this bill is enacted.

Section 6 REPEALS paragraph c of subdivision 1 of section 11-a of the
domestic relations law, which relates to the duty of a city clerk to
solemnize the rites of matrimony between parties in which one or both
individuals are under eighteen. This provision would no longer be rele-
vant when this bill is enacted.

Section 7 REPEALS section 84 of the domestic relations law relating to
the impact on a guardianship of a marriage by a person prior to reaching
the age of eighteen. This provision would no longer be relevant when
this bill is enacted.

Section 8 states that this act will take effect thirty days after it
becomes law, it will apply to licenses issued after such date and to
marriages that had not been solemnized prior to said date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Many states have laws that allow the marriage of parties under the age
of consent solely based on having parents' consent. This leads to chil-
dren as young as 10 years old being married to adults. With the United
Nations declaring forced marriages akin to slavery, it is only right
that New York State take a stance against this practice by prohibiting
any marriages between parties under the age of eighteen.

In December of 2018, The Tahirih Justice Center reported that from 2000
to 2015 over 200,000 children under the age of eighteen were married. Of
those 200,000, 87% were girls and 86% married adults.  While the legal
age to consent marriage is eighteen in most states, many have laws that
allow for exceptions including 13 states that have no minimum age
requirement for such restrictions.

Child marriages in the United States lead to the diminishment of the
mental and physical health of the girls involved. U.S. women who married
as children experience higher rates of psychiatric disorders, are more
likely to seek mental health services and have a 23% higher greater risk
of developing a serious health condition. Additionally, young women aged
16-24 experience intimate partner violence at three times the national
average amongst all such victims and the younger that the adolescent is,
the higher chance there is of them having experienced coercive sex.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Thirty days after it shall have become law.

2019-S7931 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   7931
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                               March 3, 2020
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen. SALAZAR -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary
 
 AN ACT to amend the domestic relations law, in  relation  to  increasing
   the  age  of  consent for purposes of marriage to the age of eighteen;
   and to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  Section 15-a of the domestic relations law, as amended by
 chapter 35 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
   § 15-a. Marriages of minors under [seventeen] EIGHTEEN years  of  age.
 Any marriage in which either party is under the age of [seventeen] EIGH-
 TEEN  years is hereby prohibited. Any town or city clerk who shall know-
 ingly issue a marriage license to any persons, one or both of whom shall
 be at the time of their contemplated marriage actually under the age  of
 [seventeen]  EIGHTEEN  years,  shall  be  guilty of a misdemeanor and on
 conviction thereof shall be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars.
   § 2. Section 13-b of the domestic relations law, as amended by chapter
 35 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
   § 13-b. Time within which marriage may be solemnized. A marriage shall
 not be solemnized within twenty-four hours after  the  issuance  of  the
 marriage  license, unless authorized by an order of a court of record as
 hereinafter provided, nor shall it be solemnized after sixty  days  from
 the  date  of  the  issuance  of  the marriage license unless authorized
 pursuant to section three hundred fifty-four-d  of  the  executive  law.
 Every  license  to  marry  hereafter  issued by a town or city clerk, in
 addition to other requirements specified by this chapter, must contain a
 statement of the day and the hour the license is issued and  the  period
 during which the marriage may be solemnized. It shall be the duty of the
 clergyman  or  magistrate  performing  the  marriage ceremony, or if the
 marriage is solemnized by written contract, of the judge before whom the
 contract is acknowledged, to annex  to  or  endorse  upon  the  marriage
 license the date and hour the marriage is solemnized. A judge or justice
 of  the supreme court of this state or the county judge of the county in
 which either party to be married resides, or [if such party is at  least

  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD13195-02-9

 S. 7931                             2

 seventeen  years  of age,] the judge of the family court of such county,
 if it shall appear from an examination of  the  license  and  any  other
 proofs  submitted by the parties that one of the parties is in danger of
 imminent  death, or by reason of other emergency public interest will be
 promoted thereby, or that such delay will  work  irreparable  injury  or
 great  hardship upon the contracting parties, or one of them, may, [upon
 making written affirmative findings under subdivision three  of  section
 fifteen of this article,] make an order authorizing the immediate solem-
 nization  of  the marriage and upon filing such order with the clergyman
 or magistrate performing the marriage ceremony, or if the marriage is to
 be solemnized by written  contract,  with  the  judge  before  whom  the
 contract  is  acknowledged,  such  clergyman or magistrate may solemnize
 such marriage, or such judge may take such acknowledgment  as  the  case
 may  be,  without waiting for such three day period and twenty-four hour
 period to elapse. The clergyman, magistrate  or  judge  must  file  such
 order  with  the  town  or city clerk who issued the license within five
 days after the marriage is solemnized. Such  town  or  city  clerk  must
 record and index the order in the book required to be kept by him or her
 for recording affidavits, statements, consents and licenses, and when so
 recorded  the  order  shall  become a public record and available in any
 prosecution under this section. A person who shall solemnize a  marriage
 in  violation  of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
 conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of fifty dollars for each
 offense, and in addition thereto,  his  or  her  right  to  solemnize  a
 marriage shall be suspended for ninety days.
   §  3.  Section  25 of the domestic relations law is amended to read as
 follows:
   § 25. License, when to be obtained. The  provisions  of  this  article
 pertaining  to  the  granting  of  the licenses before a marriage can be
 lawfully celebrated  apply  to  all  persons  who  assume  the  marriage
 relation  in  accordance with subdivision four of section eleven of this
 chapter. Nothing in this article contained shall be construed to  render
 void  by  reason of a failure to procure a marriage license any marriage
 solemnized between persons of full age [nor to render void any  marriage
 between  minors or with a minor under the legal age of consent where the
 consent of parent or guardian has been given and such marriage shall  be
 for  such  cause voidable only as to minors or a minor upon complaint of
 such minors or minor or of the parent or guardian thereof].
   § 4. Subdivision 1 of section 7 of  the  domestic  relations  law,  as
 amended  by  chapter  313  of  the  laws  of 1962, is amended to read as
 follows:
   1. Is under the age  of  legal  consent,  which  is  eighteen  years[,
 provided  that  such  nonage  shall not of itself constitute an absolute
 right to the annulment of such marriage, but such annulment shall be  in
 the  discretion of the court which shall take into consideration all the
 facts and circumstances surrounding such marriage];
   § 5. Subdivision 3 of section 15 of  the  domestic  relations  law  is
 REPEALED.
   §  6.  Paragraph  c  of  subdivision 1 of section 11-a of the domestic
 relations law is REPEALED.
   § 7. Section 84 of the domestic relations law is REPEALED.
   § 8. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
 have  become  a law and shall apply to licenses issued on and after such
 effective date and to marriages that have not been solemnized  prior  to
 such effective date.

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