You've Got to Love Arkansas

Apparently, the Arkansas state legislature could use a professional editor (and, maybe, a new governer). A new law took effect on July 31 that, in it's intent, was to allow people of any age who had gotten pregnant to get married with parental consent, forgoing the statutory laws of 16 years old for women and 17 for men. Unfortunately, an unseen typo made the law read thusly:

"In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."

That "not pregnant" bit changes things a lot and, while the intent of the law is clearly not to allow 10 year olds to get married, a panel tried to correct the mistake, but were thwarted by the lawmakers. Moreover, Gov. Mike Beebe came out yesterday to say there was no "imminent crisis" and that he does "not plan to immediately call a special session" to fix the issues.

I guess what this means is for all of those out there who think child brides are a good idea, Arkansas is the place for you.