Tahirih Justice Center’s compilation of all 50 states’ laws on minimum marriage age and exceptions is the focus of a November 2016 article in The Chronicle of Social Change.
Tahirih’s new resource on child marriage laws in the United States reveals that:
“Most states require the parties to be at least age 18 (the typical age of ‘majority,’ or legal adulthood) to marry without parental consent or judicial approval. Age 18 is therefore often referred to as a state’s ‘statutory minimum marriage age.’ The term can be misleading, however, because statutory exceptions that apply if there is parental consent or if a judge approves of the marriage, and/or in case of pregnancy, can in effect drop the true minimum marriage age much lower.”
