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Comment by sliverstorm | Hacker News Reader

There are pregnant mothers who sneak to America to birth their child on American soil.

There are green card marriages.

In the case of the first, we have decided that we will still give the kid citizenship. In the case of the second, we don't allow it (if we catch it).

I'm pretty sure you can marry without a marriage license. You just aren't legally married, i.e. you don't get all the legal benefits.

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Right. So we need permission from the government to marry with a "marriage license"? Why not just record the marriage? License implies a privilege not a right. I'm OK with "Certificate of Marriage." My issue lies with the "Application for Marriage" that implies marriage awaits an approval or denial decision from government. What's next? Do we need to take a marriage test, like we do with driving?

Why do we let the government deny our marriages in the first place? The law should be changed so that we record and acknowledge marriages, not have a bureau officer approve or deny it.

It's kinda a permission thing but not really. When I got married it was just like registering a birth. The city clerk took our information down (name, address, etc.) and had us sign the license under oath that it was accurate. Then the civil officiant just checked our IDs and signed off on the license that we agreed to be married and submitted it the the clerk. We then went back to the clerk to get a copy. The city clerk wouldn't have gave us our license if we showed up without ID or if we were like 12 or something but there really wasn't an "approval" process.

My problem is that the application for marriage created the marriage inequality problem in the first place. We should change the institution to recording instead of application. Just because you were issued one doesn't mean that it was automatic until today.

When you buy real estate, you simply record it. You don't need governmental approval to buy property as far as I know. You will, though, have to pay property tax.

It wasn't an application though. There was nothing that said "approve" or "deny" just that we were truthful. Its reasonable for the clerk to make sure that someone else wasn't trying to impersonate me to get married or we weren't children.

It wasn't the fact it was an "application" that was the problem - you could just say "previously some states refused to register same sex marriages" instead of "previously some states refused to give marriage licenses to same sex couples" and it means the same thing.

The Lovings (of Loving v Virgina) were arrested for getting married in DC.

Refusing to register or to give a license is the same as denying an application.

I can apply for a liquor license and the state ABC can refuse to give me a liquor license or refuse to register a liquor license and it means the same thing.

Have you gotten married in the US? I think there's substantially less red tape in practice than you're imagining. People get married on the spot all the time.

Yes, I have gotten married in the US. I'm not sure how that is relevant. My problem is the wording--"application" as opposed to "registration." Even if it's as easy as applying for a passport, there is still room for denial.

Fair enough; I only asked because in practice it's largely a formality.

You need a license because there are still some restrictions on marriage:

- Only 1 marriage at a time.

- Must be old enough.

- Must not be too closely related.

- Etc..

The marriage license handles the step of verifying those things. It's mostly a formality.

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