Session of 2025
HOUSE BILL No. 2026
By Representative Sawyer Clayton
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AN ACT concerning marriage; requiring persons to be 18 years of age or
older to be eligible to give consent for marriage; excluding certain days
from being counted toward the current three-day waiting period;
amending K.S.A. 23-2505 and repealing the existing section.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:
Section 1. K.S.A. 23-2505 is hereby amended to read as follows: 23-
2505. (a) The clerks of the district courts or judges thereof, when applied
to for a marriage license by any person who is one of the parties to the
proposed marriage and who is legally entitled to a marriage license, shall
issue a marriage license in substance as follows:
MARRIAGE LICENSE
(Name of place where office located, month, day and year.)
TO ANY PERSON authorized by law to perform the marriage
ceremony,
Greeting:
You are hereby authorized to join in marriage A B of ____________,
date of birth _______, and C D of ____________, date of birth _______,
(and name of parent or guardian consenting), and of this license, duly
endorsed, you will make due return to this office immediately after
performing the ceremony.
E F, (title of person issuing the license).
(b) No clerk or judge of the district court shall issue a marriage
license before the third calendar day (, excluding Sunday, holidays, and
days on which the office of the clerk of the court is not accessible
included), following the date of the filing of the application therefor in
such clerk's or judge's office except that in cases of emergency or
extraordinary circumstances, a judge of the district court may upon proper
showing being made, permit by order of the court the issuance of such
marriage license without waiting three days. Each district court shall keep
a record of all marriages resulting from licenses issued by the court, which
record shall show the names of the persons who were married and the date
of the marriage.
(c) No clerk or judge shall issue a license authorizing the marriage of
any person:
(1) Under the age of 16 years, except that a judge of the district court
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may, after due investigation, give consent and issue the license authorizing
the marriage of a person 15 years of age when the marriage is in the best
interest of the person 15 years of age; or
(2) who is 16 or 17 years of age without the express consent of such
person's father, mother or legal guardian and the consent of the judge
unless consent of both the mother and father and any legal guardian or all
then living parents and any legal guardian is given in which case the
consent of the judge shall not be required. If not given in person at the
time of the application, the consent shall be evidenced by a written
certificate subscribed thereto and duly attested. Where the applicants or
either of them are 16 or 17 years of age and their parents are dead and
there is no legal guardian then a judge of the district court may after due
investigation give consent and issue the license authorizing the marriage
who is under 18 years of age.
(d) The judge or clerk may issue a license upon the affidavit of the
party personally appearing and applying therefor, to the effect that the
parties to whom such license is to be issued are of lawful age, as required
by this section, and the judge or clerk is hereby authorized to administer
oaths for that purpose.
(e) Every person swearing falsely in such affidavit shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500. A clerk
or judge of the district court shall state in every license the birth dates of
the parties applying for the same, and if either or both are 16 or 17 years of
age, the name of the father, mother, or guardian consenting to such
marriage license.
(f) Every marriage license shall expire at the end of six months from
the date of issuance if the marriage for which the license was issued does
not take place within the six-month period of time.
Sec. 2. K.S.A. 23-2505 is hereby repealed.
Sec. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the statute book.
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