By: Moody (Senate Sponsor - Blanco) H.B. No. 451
(In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 2021;
May 4, 2021, read first time and referred to Committee on
Jurisprudence; May 21, 2021, reported favorably by the following
vote: Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 21, 2021, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to persons authorized to conduct a marriage ceremony.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 2.202(a) and (b), Family Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(a) The following persons are authorized to conduct a
marriage ceremony:
(1) a licensed or ordained Christian minister or
priest;
(2) a Jewish rabbi;
(3) a person who is an officer of a religious
organization and who is authorized by the organization to conduct a
marriage ceremony; and
(4) a current, former, or retired federal judge or
state judge [justice of the supreme court, judge of the court of
criminal appeals, justice of the courts of appeals, judge of the
district, county, and probate courts, judge of the county courts at
law, judge of the courts of domestic relations, judge of the
juvenile courts, retired justice or judge of those courts, justice
of the peace, retired justice of the peace, judge of a municipal
court, retired judge of a municipal court, associate judge of a
statutory probate court, retired associate judge of a statutory
probate court, associate judge of a county court at law, retired
associate judge of a county court at law, or judge or magistrate of
a federal court of this state; and
[(5) a retired judge or magistrate of a federal court
of this state].
(b) For the purposes of Subsection (a)(4), "federal judge"
and "state judge" have the meanings assigned by Section 25.025, Tax
Code [a retired judge or justice is a former judge or justice who is
vested in the Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan One or the
Judicial Retirement System of Texas Plan Two or who has an aggregate
of at least 12 years of service as judge or justice of any type
listed in Subsection (a)(4)].
SECTION 2. Section 2.202(b-1), Family Code, is repealed.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.
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