AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 10, 2026

AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 2, 2026

AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 22, 2026

AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 11, 2026

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 24, 2025

AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2025

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

93

Introduced by Assembly Members Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Dixon, and Quirk-Silva and Senators Menjivar and Wahab

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Addis, Ahrens, Alanis, Ávila Farías, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Calderon, Caloza, Castillo, Hadwick, Hart, Lackey, Lowenthal, McKinnor, Ortega, Pacheco, Papan, Patel, Ransom, Celeste Rodriguez, Schiavo, Soria, Stefani, Ward, and Wilson)

February 21, 2025

An act to amend Sections 297, 423, and 2210 of, and to repeal Sections 297.1, 298.8, 302, 303, 304, and 1501 of, the Family Code, and to repeal Sections 102233 and 102356 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to marriage.

Vote: majority   Appropriation: no   Fiscal committee: yes   Local program: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

Existing law authorizes an unmarried person who is under 18 years of age to marry upon obtaining a court order granting permission and the written consent of at least one of the parents or the guardian of each underage party to the marriage, as specified. Existing law requires the court, if it considers it necessary, as part of the court order granting permission to marry, to require the parties to the prospective marriage of a minor to participate in premarital counseling, as specified.

Existing law provides that 2 unmarried, unrelated adults who have chosen to share one another’s lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring may establish a domestic partnership by filing a declaration with the Secretary of State, if certain requirements are met. Existing law provides that a person under 18 years of age who, together with the person with whom the person proposes to establish a domestic partnership, meets the requirements for a domestic partnership other than the requirement of being at least 18 years of age, is capable of consenting to and establishing a domestic partnership upon obtaining a court order granting permission to the underage person or persons to establish a domestic partnership. Under existing law, registered domestic partners have the same rights, protections, and benefits as spouses.

This bill would repeal the authorization for a person under 18 years of age to be issued a marriage license or to establish a domestic partnership, thereby prohibiting a person under 18 years of age from being issued a marriage license or from establishing a domestic partnership. The bill would make conforming changes.

Existing law requires the State Registrar to create a document, no later than March 1, 2020, concerning marriage certificates in which one or both of the parties were minors at the time of solemnization of the marriage. Existing law requires the State Registrar to update that document annually, as specified. Existing law requires the local registrar to submit specified information for the purposes of that report.

This bill would repeal those provisions.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 297 of the Family Code is amended to read:

297.

(a) Domestic partners are two adults who have chosen to share one another’s lives in an intimate and committed relationship of mutual caring.

(b) A domestic partnership shall be established in California when both persons file a Declaration of Domestic Partnership with the Secretary of State pursuant to this division, and, at the time of filing, division and all of the following requirements are met: met at the time of filing:

(1) Neither person is married to another person, or is a member of another domestic partnership with another person, that has not been terminated, dissolved, or adjudged a nullity.

(2) The two persons are not related by blood in a way that would prevent them from being married to each other in this state.

(3) Both persons are at least 18 years of age.

(4) Both persons are capable of consenting to the domestic partnership.

SEC. 2.

Section 297.1 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 3.

Section 298.8 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 4.

Section 302 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 5.

Section 303 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 6.

Section 304 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 7.

Section 423 of the Family Code is amended to read:

423.

The person solemnizing the marriage shall return the marriage license, endorsed as required in Section 422, to the county recorder of the county in which the license was issued within 10 days after the ceremony.

SEC. 8.

Section 1501 of the Family Code is repealed.

SEC. 9.

Section 2210 of the Family Code is amended to read:

2210.

A marriage is voidable and may be adjudged a nullity if any of the following conditions existed at the time of the marriage:

(a) The party who commences the proceeding or on whose behalf the proceeding is commenced was under 18 years of age, unless the party entered into the marriage pursuant to former Section 302 or former Section 303 in this state before January 1, 2027.

(b) The spouse of either party was living, and the marriage with that spouse was then in force and that spouse (1) was absent and not known to the party commencing the proceeding to be living for a period of five successive years immediately preceding the subsequent marriage for which the judgment of nullity is sought or (2) was generally reputed or believed by the party commencing the proceeding to be dead at the time the subsequent marriage was contracted.

(c) Either party was of unsound mind, unless the party of unsound mind, after coming to reason, freely cohabited with the other as their spouse.

(d) The consent of either party was obtained by fraud, unless the party whose consent was obtained by fraud afterwards, with full knowledge of the facts constituting the fraud, freely cohabited with the other as their spouse.

(e) The consent of either party was obtained by force, unless the party whose consent was obtained by force afterwards freely cohabited with the other as their spouse.

(f) Either party was, at the time of marriage, physically incapable of entering into the marriage state, and that incapacity continues and appears to be incurable.

SEC. 10.

Section 102233 of the Health and Safety Code is repealed.

SEC. 11.

Section 102356 of the Health and Safety Code is repealed.