BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1143|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1143
Author: Ma (D)
Amended: 3/26/09 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 6/23/09
AYES: Corbett, Harman, Florez, Leno, Walters
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 5/18/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Marriage: name
SOURCE : California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials
DIGEST : This bill creates a simplified procedure to
correct clerical errors in a name listed on a marriage
license, and clarifies that prospective spouses who want to
change or combine their middle and last names may still
retain their original middle name.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that parties to a
marriage do not have to have the same name. (Section 306.5
of the Family Code)
Existing law allows one party or both parties to a marriage
to elect to change the middle or last name by which that
party wishes to be known after solemnization of the
marriage by entering the new name in a space provided on
the marriage license form. (Section 306.5 of the Family
CONTINUED
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Code)
Existing law provides a simplified process to correct
errors of fact on birth or death certificates, or marriage
licenses. (Sections 103225-103255 of the Health and Safety
Code)
This bill provides that a party to a marriage may adopt a
new middle name or last name or both, and the new middle or
last name may include any combination of middle or last
names of either spouse.
This bill allows an amendment to correct a clerical error
in a name field on the marriage license.
This bill requires that the amendment be signed by one of
the parties to the marriage and the county clerk or his/her
deputy.
This bill defines clerical error as an error made by a
county clerk, his/her deputy or notary authorized to issue
confidential licenses whereby the information in the new
name field of the marriage license does not match the
information contained in the marriage license application.
Prior legislation . AB 102 (Ma), Chapter 567, Statutes of
2007, passed the Senate Floor by a vote of 24-15 on
September 6,2 007.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/24/09)
California Association of Clerks and Election Officials
(source)
OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/24/09)
Department of Public Health
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office,
several instances of clerical errors have been discovered
in the new name fields since the implementation of AB 102
AB 1143
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(Ma) on January 1, 2009. In order to minimize the impact
to the parties of the marriage and avoid the expense and
time consuming process for counties to petition the
Superior Court to correct the errors, the California
Association of Clerks and Election Officials worked with
the Office of Vital Records to come up with a temporary
work around to correct these errors. However, the author's
office states that this process is very time consuming and
can take several weeks, possibly months to complete.
The author's office also states that many applicants who
are changing their names shown on a marriage license
application have expressed a desire to retain their
existing middle name, add their birth name to the middle
name field, and change their last name to that of the other
spouse. Current law requires that they completely remove
their existing middle name if they choose to change their
middle name to their current or birth last name, or the
last name of the other spouse.
This bill seeks to address both of these issues by creating
a procedure to correct clerical errors and clarifying which
combination of names parties to a marriage may use when
entering their new name on the marriage license.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Department of Public Health
writes: "While CDPH understands the desire to allow
parties to a marriage to use a combination of names to
establish new middle and last names, in doing so, persons
could create innumerable variations of names that result in
no recognizable link to the individual's current identity
or that of their spouse. This portion of the bill has the
unintended consequence of providing individuals the
opportunity to completely change their identities. The
Department suggests amending the bill to clarify that new
middle names can only be comprised of whole names, not
segments of the names listed in Family Code Section 306.5."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
AB 1143
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DeVore, Duvall, Emmerson, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, Logue,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava,
Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel
Perez, Portantino, Ruskin, Salas, Silva, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres,
Torrico, Tran, Yamada, Bass
NO VOTE RECORDED: Eng, Jeffries, Price, Saldana, Villines
RJG:mw 6/25/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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