republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2021/sb-1142.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Marriage; persons who may celebrate rites, authorizes current members of the General Assembly."
description: "Persons who may celebrate rites of marriage; members of the General Assembly; statewide elected officials. Authorizes any current member of the General Assembly and the current Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General to celebrate the rites of marriage anywhere in the Commonwealth without the necessity of bond or order of authorization."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1142"
citation: "Virginia SB 1142 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["John A. Cosgrove, Jr."]
version_count: 4
action_count: 30
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-01-05"
last_action: "2021-03-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5a11b22f-fd7d-498d-abc6-b040a82827a6"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1142"
source_hash: "2d7d408878079df2d3de6ff3ca9146d1080e58c019a153d8c4c195e4980501cf"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1142 (2021) — Marriage; persons who may celebrate rites, authorizes current members of the General Assembly.

Persons who may celebrate rites of marriage; members of the General Assembly; statewide elected officials. Authorizes any current member of the General Assembly and the current Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General to celebrate the rites of marriage anywhere in the Commonwealth without the necessity of bond or order of authorization.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0087** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0087)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101298D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1142)
3. **SB1142ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1142ER)
4. **SB1142S1** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1142S1)

## Votes

- Continued to Special Session 1 in Courts of Justice — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Judiciary (11-Y 1-N 2-A) — **11–1** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N) — **8–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (33-Y 4-N 1-A) — **33–4** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N) — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Engrossment reconsidered by Senate (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Block Vote Passage (98-Y 0-N) — **97–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- John A. Cosgrove, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-05** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101298D `introduction`
- **2021-01-05** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Reported from Judiciary (11-Y 1-N 2-A) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-19** Constitutional reading dispensed (38-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-20** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-20** Engrossment reconsidered by Senate (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-20** Passed by for the day
- **2021-01-21** Floor substitute printed 21103442D-S1 (Ebbin)
- **2021-01-21** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-01-21** Reading of substitute waived
- **2021-01-21** Substitute by Senator Ebbin agreed to 21103442D-S1
- **2021-01-21** Engrossed by Senate - floor substitute SB1142S1
- **2021-01-22** Read third time and passed Senate (33-Y 4-N 1-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Courts of Justice
- **2021-02-11** Assigned Courts sub: Civil `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-12** Subcommittee recommends reporting (8-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-17** Reported from Courts of Justice (22-Y 0-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-19** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-22** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-22** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (98-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-22** VOTE: Block Vote Passage (98-Y 0-N)
- **2021-02-24** Enrolled
- **2021-02-24** Signed by President
- **2021-02-25** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-03-01** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on March 1, 2021
- **2021-03-01** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-11** Approved by Governor-Chapter 87 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5a11b22f-fd7d-498d-abc6-b040a82827a6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).