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Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics June, 2007

Extending Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples: Massachusetts 2004-2007. Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics June, 2007. What did the Supreme Judicial Court decide in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health?.

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Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics June, 2007

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  1. Extending Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples: Massachusetts 2004-2007 Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics June, 2007

  2. What did the Supreme Judicial Court decide in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health? On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) declared that "barring an individual from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution.” The entry of judgment was delayed for 180 days. On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts city and town clerks began accepting Notices of Intention to marry from same-sex couples.

  3. No. The legislature did not made any statutory changes to the marriage laws to facilitate the implementation of Goodridge. The SJC preserved the marriage statutes, and refined the common-law definition of civil marriage to mean the voluntary union of two persons as spouses to the exclusion of all others. Were statutory changes made?

  4. Can a clerk refuse to issue a certificate of marriage to a person solely because that person intends to marry a person of the same sex? No. The SJC declared that barring a person from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex would violate the Massachusetts Constitution.

  5. Notice of Intention of Marriage • Changes were made to the Notice of Intention form to help clerks implement the laws of the Commonwealth, including the SJC’s Goodridge ruling. • Clarifications were made to inform clerks of impediments to marriage for all marriage applicants, not just same-sex.

  6. Designation of applicants Where an applicant resides and intends to reside Civil unions and domestic partnerships Applicant’s sex Other items were modified to improve clarity – all impediments to marry must be equally applied and enforced, such as age, consanguinityand affinity, and laws of the state in which the parties reside. Items that were modified included:

  7. Q: What has changed on the Notice of Intention regarding the names of the applicants? Answer: Where the previous forms say “Bride” and “Groom”, the revised forms say “Party A” and “Party B.” Q: Which person should be “Party A” and which person should be “Party B”? Answer: That is up to the two people involved to decide. There is no legal significance to the choice of one title or the other. Sample FAQs

  8. Q: What has changed on the Notice of Intention regarding where a person intends to reside? Answer: Lines 6A & 14A now ask: “If not a Massachusetts resident, I intend to reside in: ________” Q: Does a person have to be a resident of Massachusetts to get married there? Answer: No. There is no residency requirement to get married in Massachusetts.

  9. Q: If a person does not have to be a resident of Massachusetts to get married here, why would we ask for his residence and intended residence? M.G.L. c. 207, s. 11 (section 11) states that: “No marriage shall be contracted in this commonwealth by a party residing and intending to continue to reside in another jurisdiction if such marriage would be void if contracted in such other jurisdiction, and every marriage contracted in this commonwealth in violation hereof shall be null and void.” In other words, if a person lives and intends to continue to live in another state or jurisdiction and cannot legally get married in that state or jurisdiction, her marriage “shall be null and void.”

  10. Providing marriage to a couple when their marriage is “null and void” may have significant legal consequences: • The rights of children may be seriously affected; • The rights of spouses may be different than expected; • These issues may not be raised for years, such as in a wrongful death action, divorce, child support action, or estate challenge. Q: Why enforce Section 11?

  11. All applicants have previously had to swear under the pains and penalties of perjury that there were no legal impediments to marriage. Until now, Massachusetts has not had significantly broader marriage laws than other states. As a result, there was little reason to think that people were coming to Massachusetts to avoid their resident state’s marriage laws. At the present time, Massachusetts is the only state in the United States where people of the same sex may marry. Q: Why hasn’t anyone focused on section 11 before?

  12. “Before issuing a license to marry a person who resides and intends to continue to reside in another state, the officer having authority to issue the license shall satisfy himself, by requiring affidavits or otherwise, that such person is not prohibited from intermarrying by the laws of the jurisdiction where he or she resides.” (G.L. c. 207, s. 12) (“section 12”) -A state-by-state list of all impediments was published for city and town clerks. Determining impediments

  13. Q: What has changed on the Notice of Intention with regard to a person’s sex? Answer: Lines 22 & 23 ask a person to indicate: “Sex:Male Female”

  14. Certificate of Marriage Very minor modifications to rapidly implement change. The form is aligned exactly as the previous version, allowing city and town clerks to use existing procedures for completion and filing. New fields: • Sex of Party A • Sex of Party B

  15. Supplement to Notice of Intention of Marriage • Unchanged, except for labels “Party A” and “Party B”

  16. Affidavit & Correction • No additional changes -- • Marriage Records are “Point in Time” documents • Only provide data for those items collected in Massachusetts at the time the marriage occurred. • For example: • If correcting a record from 1916 do not include information on occupation or sex of party.

  17. Administration • No segregation of volumes by same-sex/opposite-sex • Continued to number & report all records in sequence • Access to all marriage records follow the same rules as always

  18. Issues of Validity The State Registrar and clerks will not rule on the validity of a marriage. • The State Registry and city/town clerks will honor a judicial order from a court • The State Registrar may refer novel legal questions to the Attorney General or may seek judicial clarification

  19. Later developments • The Massachusetts Superior Court issued a declaratory judgment in the Cote-Whitacre case that same-sex marriage is prohibited in New York and not prohibited in Rhode Island. • As of October 2, 2006, same-sex couples who reside in Rhode Island are permitted to marry in MA. • A proposed Constitutional Amendment is still on the table.

  20. Number of Massachusetts marriage records received and recorded from May 17, 2004 through April, 26, 2007 Total Same-sex marriages to date: 9,695

  21. Percent of Massachusetts marriage records received and recorded from May 17, 2004 through April, 26, 2007 by Sex of Parties Percents are rounded.

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