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Judge Strikes Louisiana Law Requiring Birth Certificates for Marriage

A federal judge has permanently blocked a Louisiana law that prevented foreign-born U.S. citizens from getting married if they couldn’t produce a birth certificate.

A federal judge has permanently blocked a Louisiana law that prevented foreign-born U.S. citizens from getting married if they couldn’t produce a birth certificate.

 

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle’s ruling resolves a lawsuit Lafayette resident Viet Anh Vo filed last year after he and his U.S.-born fiancee had their application for a marriage license rejected two weeks before their wedding.

 

The permanent injunction benefits anyone whom the 2016 law prevented from obtaining a marriage license.

 

The judge initially blocked enforcement of the statute in March, pending Tuesday’s final ruling. Lawmakers responded in June by allowing marriage license applicants who can’t produce a birth certificate to get a judicial waiver. But Lemelle said that new law, which took effect on Aug. 1, preserved other unconstitutional provisions, such as passport and visa requirements, that apply only to foreign-born citizens.

Natalie Delgadillo is an editor and writer living in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Bloomberg's CityLab, and The Atlantic. She was previously the managing editor of DCist.