[CORRECTED] Tennessee bill would legalize child marriage, forced marriages

[Editor’s note (4/5): A previous version of this article said that Tennessee House Bill 0233 contained language that would legalize child and nonconsensual marriages. After review, we learned we were using outdated information that was already corrected by press time. The bill was already amended to remove those specific provisions by press time. We sincerely regret the error. To be transparent, we have included the original text of the article but added clear, bolded corrections whenever there is false information. As we are the ones to publish outdated information, we feel the need to correct it in the original text, within the original hyperlink. We are currently working towards creating a more accurate article about HB 0233.]

Until then-Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill in 2018 establishing an age minimum, child marriage was legal in Tennessee. A bill currently under consideration in the state legislature would remove that minimum age, along with a host of other modern-day protections on forced and non-consensual marriages. [No longer true, as this has been removed through an amendment.]

Tennessee’s state legislative website describes House Bill 0233 as deleting marriage licensing statutes and limiting the state courts’ jurisdiction on common law marriages.

The first of those deleted statutes is the licensing requirements — which govern who may get a marriage license, therefore who can legally get married — within Chapter 3 of Title 36, the portion of Tennessee’s codes of law dealing with marriage.

The first section prohibits marriage with a “lineal descendent” of any sort. State Rep. Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington), the bill’s sponsor, keeps that. You also still can’t marry multiple people at once.

But the section stating “It is unlawful for any county clerk or deputy clerk in this state to issue a marriage license” where either person is under 17 or one person is 17 and the other person is more than four years older gets deleted. [No longer true, as this has been removed through an amendment.]

Effectively, this once again legalizes child marriage in the state. [No longer true, as this has been removed through an amendment.]

Leatherwood told Nashville-based WKRN the bill would “give an alternative form of marriage for those pastors and other individuals who have a conscientious objection to the current pathway to marriage in our law.”

Also deleted are the parts titled “Forced marriage prohibited” and “Issuance of license to drunks, insane persons or imbeciles forbidden.” [No longer true, as this has been removed through an amendment.] While the language of the latter heading is archaic, the statute as written prevents someone who is unable to consent from marrying. [No longer true, as this has been removed through an amendment.]

As it does with child marriage, HB 0233 would remove protections from people being forced into marriages or being married when they are unable to consent. [No longer true, as this has been removed through an amendment.]

Notably, Leatherwood’s bill stops short of deleting Tennessee’s definition of who constitutes a marriage. “Marriage between one man and one woman only legally recognized marital contract” stays where it is. This, however, is negated by the 2015 Supreme Court of the United States decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriages nationally.

Mike Stewart (D-Nashville) sits on the House Children and Family Affairs Subcommittee, which recently sent HB 0233 to the Civil Justice Committee. He told WKRN the bill should be eliminated.

“It’s basically a get out of jail free card for people who are basically committing statutory rape — I mean it’s completely ridiculous,” Stewart said.

HB 0233 is on the Civil Justice Committee’s calendar for Wednesday. Leatherwood’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.