SCOTUS orders thrice-divorced KY county clerk to issue marriage license

[Benton]

(09-10-2015, 01:43 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: There should be no benefits to a government marriage.   The whole reason we have a gov marriage was to prevent interracial marriages.

Wow. That's not correct at all. It started in Europe several hundred years ago due to two areas: conflict with the Catholic Church (which had previously sanctioned the bulk marriages) which didn't always recognize marriages it didn't agree with and a need to keep track of citizens going to colonies in the Americas and Africas.

For the US, we had a hodge podge of state laws — yes some preventing interracial marriages — that made marriage laws difficult. Just like gay marriage, you could be married in one state, but not in another because of someone's race, age, etc.

But the biggest reason? Money. States figured out they can charge $X for every married couple and have an already existing office take care of the paperwork.

So, no. It's not about race. It's about money.