It's such a pain having to round up a priest or minister to perform the marriage ceremony, isn't it? What if you could just snag the nearest member of state government? Here's the full text of an Associated Press story that has moved over the wire:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The governor, lieutenant governor and members of the Indiana General Assembly could officially perform marriages under a bill endorsed Tuesday by a Senate panel.
The Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters approved the bill 7-4 and sent it to the full Senate.
State law allows marriages to be solemnized by members of the clergy, judges, mayors within their counties, a clerk or clerk treasurer of a city or town within that jurisdiction, clerks of circuit courts and imams, along with four specific churches.
Republican Sen. Brent Steele of Bedford, chairman of the committee, said the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon once performed a marriage by getting permission to be a judge pro tem for a day.
Steele said one of his sons wanted his father to conduct his marriage a couple of years ago, and Steele discovered that the law did not specify that he could.
“I've had a lot of people in the Legislature ask if they could do this and thought they ought to be able to do this,” Steele said.
It is a myth, by the way, that captains of ships can perform marriage ceremonies, which is too bad, really. It'd be kinda cool to be married by the captain of the Blue Chip right after you've lost your life savings. Oh, and I discovered this about Indiana marriage law: First cousins may marry, as long as they're both at least 65.
