Child marriage ban brought back, advances

A surprisingly controversial bill that would ban child marriage in Tennessee — killed last week, then revived in a span of just days — advanced in the House on Wednesday, moving forward with bipartisan support.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Darren Jernigan, D-Old Hickory, and Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, originally sought to ban the marriage of minors outright after the lawmakers cited a legal loophole that allows judges to grant marriage certificates to minors at their own discretion without a minimum age limit.

The sponsors also cited higher divorce rates and instances of abuse for married minors and possible legal complications for those seeking ways out of such relationships.

Republican leaders killed the bill in subcommittee last week amid concerns over how the legislation could affect a conservative activist’s case against gay marriage. Republicans then brought the bill back amid the ensuing controversy.

‘Our hearts are in the right place’

The measure passed 6-0 Wednesday in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee with bipartisan support after lawmakers amended the bill to make the minimum age 17 and added several requirements beyond judicial discretion.

Those requirements include parental consent, evidence of the minor’s maturity and completion of high school.

According to state data obtained by the national nonprofit Unchained at Last, Tennessee granted 37 marriage licenses to 17-year-old girls in 2014, the only minors in that year. In those cases, the grooms were ages 18 and 19.

By comparison, in 2000, the state issued 1,256 marriage licenses to 16- and 17-year-olds, including 1,094 to 16- and 17-year-old girls. In those cases, the oldest groom was 26, according to the state data analyzed by the organization.

“I think our hearts are in the right place,” Jernigan said before the committee.

Still, the measure’s passing was not without a last moment of suspense.

House Majority Leader Glen Casada, R-Franklin, who originally made the motion to send the bill to summer study session, a place where bills go to die, suggested an amendment to soften Jernigan’s proposal.

Casada’s amendment would put the minimum age a person could marry at 17, but would require only judicial and parental consent. Jernigan said he didn’t believe the leader’s amendment would work because it would not include legal protection for married minors.

But Casada withdrew his amendment after Jernigan’s bill was rolled to the end of the calendar.

“It has been a roller coaster, and even up to today there was still some uncertainties, but I think in the end we have come together on an amendment that strengthens marriage and protects children 17 and under,” Jernigan said. “And I think we’re at a point now to where we can just go right through. There may be some adjustments, but if there are adjustments they will be minor. I can assure you that.”

Debate over government and marriage

The bill seems on its way to passage, having been given a stamp of approval by House leaders and facing less opposition in the Senate.

But the measure, whose sponsors believed it would slide through the legislature with bipartisan support from the outset, has instead cultivated conversation about the lines between childhood and adulthood and the state’s role in the institution of marriage.

One of the initial concerns raised by some lawmakers was whether the bill would take into consideration certain situations in which minors age 16 and older and their parents might think a marriage is a good decision.

“I don’t think we need to be directing the age (of marriage) for 17-year-olds. I’d rather leave that in the parents’ decisions and not legislators’,” Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, said before Monday’s Senate session. “Now, I do agree that if they are like 16 or under that’s something different.”

Pody says he signed off on the marriage of one of his teenage daughters just before she turned 18.

As far as the separation between church and state on the issue of marriage, it was, in part, an issue raised by attorney and former state Sen. David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee.

“Some people think the state should regulate marriage, and I do not,” Fowler, who is working on a lawsuit against gay marriage, initially told Jernigan.

But some evangelical Christian leaders say all matters of marriage should not necessarily be handled by the church.

“Whatever our disagreements in American life about the proper role of government, surely we can all agree that the government should protect vulnerable children from sexual predators,” said Russell Moore, current president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“Safeguarding children must be the concern of all of us,” he said. “Any law that provides a loophole for creepy men to exploit children should be reformed.”

Reach Jordan Buie at jbuie@tennessean.com or 615-726-5970 and on Twitter @jordanbuie.