Tennessee’s Republican House majority leader, Glen Casada, was convinced by a former state Republican lawmaker to kill a bill that would ban child marriages, because the bill could hurt an effort to challenge the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage.
The bill called for Tennessee’s government to ban marriages in which one of the parties is under the age of 18, the Tennessean reported.
But former state Sen. David Fowler, now president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, urged Casada to drop the bill, and said it could hurt his group’s effort to challenge same-sex marriage.
Fowler’s argument is that the Supreme Court nullified all Tennessee marriages when it ruled that same-sex marriages are permitted, and that by passing a bill to ban child marriages, the state would be confirming that its marriages have not been nullified, according to the Tennessean.
After Fowler intervened, Republican lawmakers in the state sent the proposal to something called “summer study” in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee, which has been known to kill bills.
One of the bill’s Democratic sponsors of the bill to ban child marriages, Rep. Darren Jernigan, said he doubted his proposal would interfere at all with plans to challenge the Supreme Court, and said it was “disgraceful” to pull the bill.
“It’s disgraceful. I’m embarrassed for the State of Tennessee, and I can only pray that we bring this back next year and not let them get in the way,” he said.
Although the state’s government denies it, there have been three reports of children as young as 10 getting married. In 2016, there were 42 cases where males under 18 were married and 166 instances of underage females getting married.
