AGO 97027.

• Court: Nebraska

Nebraska Attorney General Opinions 1997. AGO 97027. DATE: April 30, 1997SUBJECT: Amendment FA125 to LB 280, Legitimization of Marriages Involving Underage Children Based Upon "Custom" REQUESTED BY: Senator Don Wesely Nebraska State LegislatureWRITTEN BY: Don Stenberg, Attorney General Dale A. Comer, Assistant Attorney General LB 280 is a bill dealing with recognition of certain marriages in Nebraska. The bill states that "[i]t is declared to be the strong public policy of this state to recognize as valid only those marriages from other states that are between one man and one woman." In light of this policy, the bill would amend Neb. Rev. Stat. § 42-103 (1993) to add marriages "when the parties are of the same sex" to a listing of types of marriages which are void under Nebraska law. The existing portions of § 42-103 currently void certain marriages where there is a previous spouse living at the time of the marriage, where one of the parties is mentally incompetent, or where the parties are related in certain respects. The bill would also amend Neb. Rev. Stat. § 42-117 (1993) to read: All marriages contracted in any other country, state, or territory, which would be valid by the laws of the country, state or territory in which the same were contracted shall be valid in all courts and places in this state unless the marriage would be void under section 42-103. An amendment to LB 280 has now been proposed which would further alter the bill's effect upon § 42-117. Amendment No. FA125 would amend LB 280 to insert the words "or customs" into the bill, so that the proposed amendment to § 42-117 would read: All marriages contracted in any other country, state, or territory, which would be valid by the laws or customs of the country, state or territory in which the same were contracted shall be valid in all courts and places in this state unless the marriage would be void under section 42-103. (language of Amendment No. FA125 emphasized). Your question goes to the additional language for LB 280 proposed in Amendment No. FA125. In your opinion request letter, you note that there is a case currently pending in Lancaster County in which "Iraqi parents . . . forced their thirteen and fourteen year old daughters to marry Iraqi men, aged 28 and 34." You go on to state that, "[t]he Iraqi parents argued that such marriages were a custom in their...