Friday, February 26, 2010

Marriage Rules in Massachusetts

The marriage laws in Massachusetts specify the following:

No man shall marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, stepmother, grandfather's wife, grandson's wife, wife's mother, wife's grandmother, wife's daughter, wife's granddaughter, brother's daughter, sister's daughter, father's sister or mother's sister.

No woman shall marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, brother, stepfather, grandmother's husband, daughter's husband, granddaughter's husband, husband's grandfather, husband's son, husband's grandson, brother's son, sister's son, father's brother or mother's brother.
Presumably the demand for such marriages is small.  But should policy prohibit them?

Thanks to Joel Pollak for the tip (he noticed a sign with this information when he applied for his own marriage license).

Pollak is the Republican (libertarian sympathizing) candidate for the 11th Congressional district in Illinois; see here for more information.  I met Pollak recently when he visited Harvard.

See here for a faceoff over subprime lending between Pollak and Barney Frank; see here for a follow-up interview of Pollak by Greta Van Susteren.

2 comments:

James Mitchell said...

Government regulation can make sense when third parties are harmed. In this case, for many of the categories mentioned, the third parties would be children produced by the marriage. Do you want to be a child whose father married and had children with his sister?

James Mitchell
www.jmitchell.me

jimbino said...

The references to marrying wife's (husband's) relatives must refer to ex-wife (ex-husband), right?