Fabio
98 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
98 lines
5.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: "Bill"
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title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MARRIAGE LICENSE APPLICATION."
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description: "This Act removes the requirement that applicants for a marriage license state their race as part of the application process. Delaware is one of a small number of states that currently requires this information. In October 2019, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that requiring marriage license applicants to provide their race violates the United States Constitution. In Delaware, the Clerks of the Peace, who are the points of data collection, have expressed support for this Act, as has the Office of Vital Statistics in the Department of Health and Social Services. The National Center for Health Statistics (\"NCHS\") has not requested detailed information from states regarding marriage and divorce since 1996. NCHS only requires states to provide the total number of marriages that occur each month."
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jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
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legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
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session: "150"
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identifier: "SB 194"
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citation: "Delaware SB 194 (150)"
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classification: ["bill"]
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subjects: []
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status: "enacted"
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primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "Kendra Johnson", "Paul S. Baumbach", "Stephanie L. Hansen"]
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version_count: 1
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action_count: 8
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vote_count: 2
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first_action: "2019-12-19"
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last_action: "2020-09-28"
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source: "openstates"
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source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2df75a6f-416e-42d4-9601-63b6feef0c8b"
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source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47908"
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source_hash: "5ec43f12384a61ef338c00648312124eee08759da9d52c679eafabf441112956"
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vintage: "2026-07-01"
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source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
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retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
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confidence: "reported"
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tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
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---
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# Delaware SB 194 (150) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 13 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MARRIAGE LICENSE APPLICATION.
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This Act removes the requirement that applicants for a marriage license state their race as part of the application process. Delaware is one of a small number of states that currently requires this information. In October 2019, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that requiring marriage license applicants to provide their race violates the United States Constitution. In Delaware, the Clerks of the Peace, who are the points of data collection, have expressed support for this Act, as has the Office of Vital Statistics in the Department of Health and Social Services. The National Center for Health Statistics ("NCHS") has not requested detailed information from states regarding marriage and divorce since 1996. NCHS only requires states to provide the total number of marriages that occur each month.
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## Version chain
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The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
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1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=47908&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB194)
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## Votes
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- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
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- 3/4 — **41–0** (pass) · lower
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## Sponsors
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- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
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- Kendra Johnson — primary (person)
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- Paul S. Baumbach — primary (person)
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- Stephanie L. Hansen — primary (person)
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- Anthony Delcollo — cosponsor (person)
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- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
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- Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
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- Bryant L. Richardson — cosponsor (person)
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- Catherine Cloutier — cosponsor (person)
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- Colin Bonini — cosponsor (person)
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- Darius J. Brown — cosponsor (person)
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- Dave G. Lawson — cosponsor (person)
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- David B. McBride — cosponsor (person)
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- David L. Wilson — cosponsor (person)
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- David P. Sokola — cosponsor (person)
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- Earl G. Jaques Jr. — cosponsor (person)
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- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
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- Ernesto B Lopez — cosponsor (person)
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- Gerald W. Hocker — cosponsor (person)
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- Harris B. McDowell — cosponsor (person)
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- John "Jack" Walsh — cosponsor (person)
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- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
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- John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
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- Krista Griffith — cosponsor (person)
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- Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
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- Michael Ramone — cosponsor (person)
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- Nicole Poore — cosponsor (person)
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- Nnamdi O. Chukwuocha — cosponsor (person)
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- Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)
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- S. Elizabeth Lockman — cosponsor (person)
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- Sherry Dorsey Walker — cosponsor (person)
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- Stephanie T. Bolden — cosponsor (person)
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- Trey Paradee — cosponsor (person)
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## Timeline
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The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
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- **2019-12-19** Introduced and Assigned to Health & Social Services Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
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- **2020-01-15** Reported Out of Committee (Health & Social Services) in Senate with 4 Favorable `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
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- **2020-01-16** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
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- **2020-01-17** Assigned to Housing & Community Affairs Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
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- **2020-01-22** Reported Out of Committee (Housing & Community Affairs) in House with 7 On Its Merits `committee-passage`
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- **2020-06-26** Suspension of Rules in Senate
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- **2020-06-29** Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES `passage`
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- **2020-09-28** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
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## Source
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OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2df75a6f-416e-42d4-9601-63b6feef0c8b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).
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