Marriage license lists in paper may be out

Blushing new couples who scour their local newspapers for the announcement of their marriage license may not find it after Jan. 1.

A state law meant to prevent sensitive information on a marriage license from being released also limits county clerk-recorder's offices from releasing lists of new licenses to media outlets as they've previously done.

Clerk-recorders in Sutter, Yuba and Colusa counties all said that'll be standard practice when the law, AB130, takes effect on New Year's Day.

"It's not that we wouldn't still love to give you the information, but we can't," said Donna Johnston, Sutter County clerk-recorder. "I think it is an unintended consequence-type of situation."

Under the law, only specified individuals will be able to pull a certified marriage certificate, while others will be able to get a copy for informational purposes only.

County clerk-recorders like Johnston said that means newspapers won't be able to get the whole list of new marriage licenses issued without specifically requesting them for each marriage. Instead, those requesting an index of new licenses will have to provide identification and fill out an application every time they ask.

The law puts marriage licenses in the same category as indices of birth and death certificates, which have not been available for general public examination for about eight years.

Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, said that prevention of identity theft, not prohibiting newly married couples' names from being published in newspapers, was the intention of the bill. The bill was written at the behest of the state association of county recorders, according to Jeffries' office.

But Yuba County Clerk-Recorder Terry Hansen said her office isn't taking chances. "They've couched the wording in such a way that there's no way to get around it," she said.

Hansen and Johnston said they're both mulling ways to let couples know of the restriction, and how those couples can contact media outlets to share the information directly.

Such planning acknowledges an irony of the bill's roadblock against releasing marriage license information, they said: Most couples want to share such news, at least generally.

Takera Henry, who works with couples getting married at the Plumas Lake Golf & Country Club, said finding the license announcement is a regular habit for newlyweds she knows.

"They look for it and cut it out," she said. If the couples need to share such information themselves, she said, most of them will want to do so. "It's definitely something they want publicly known," she said.

But it's not clear whether media outlets will still run lists of new marriage licenses if counties no longer provide them.

Appeal-Democrat Editor Len La Barth said the paper could list them as it receives notification of them from individual couples, or could charge couples for listing them. The licenses periodically appear on pages A2 and C2 of the newspaper.

"I believe our readers will be disappointed at the exclusion of this information," La Barth said. "It's disappointing in the sense of it's one more piece of information being withheld from the public."

Officials with media groups said it is not clear how the law will affect newspaper license listings.

Tom Newton, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said his group decided not to oppose AB130 as it passed through the Legislature because it contained ways for license information to be released individually.

The association couldn't stop previous bills limiting access to birth and death certificates, he said, so trying it with marriage licenses seemed fruitless.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California-based First Amendment Coalition, said his group might have to help educate county clerks and their staffs over what they can release under the law.

"I'm not sure people get married to keep it a secret," he said.