Arkansas, land of baby brides and grooms
Thanks to one little misplaced word, it appears that people of any age can legally be married in Arkansas, with parental consent.
Lawmakers say a law passed this year would even allow infants to be married if their parents agree. And that may force the governor to call a special session to fix the mistake.
The bill’s sponsor says the legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry — but also let pregnant teenagers marry with parental consent. An extraneous “not” in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.
A commission that fixes typographical and technical errors in laws had tried to correct the mistake, but a group of legislators argued that the commission went beyond its powers.
The Arkansas legislature is not scheduled to meet again until January of 2009, so without a special session, marrying infants could remain legal there for the next year or so. I’m not sure if that’s a step up or down from marrying your cousin, but then again there doesn’t seem to be anything in the law to prevent two infant cousins from marrying each other — as long as their parents say it’s okay.
