Marriage In Iowa Law

Marriage in Iowa Law A survey of marriage as it relates to legal rights and responsibilities in the Iowa Code David S. Shafer [email protected] May 18, 2008

A computer analysis of Iowa laws was conducted to determine what role marriage plays in determining Iowans’ legal rights and responsibilities. The analysis involved programmatically retrieving and searching the complete text of the 2007 Iowa Code to identify where specific keywords related to marriage appeared. The results showed that marriage and related words appeared 1,817 times in the Iowa Code, across 547 sections and 193 chapters. These numbers suggest that marriage plays a crucial role in determining a wide range of Iowans’ legal rights and responsibilities, and that it would be difficult to create a separate system of domestic partnerships or civil unions granting equivalent rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples.

Purpose An emotionally charged debate is taking place in Iowa regarding the question of whether to grant samesex couples the right to civil marriage. As in the rest of the nation, this has raised important questions about the nature of marriage, the role of government, the rights of same-sex couples, and the legal impact of marriage. This study is intended to examine the latter by determining what role marriage plays in determining Iowans’ legal rights and responsibilities in Iowa laws. Many of the questions raised by the same-sex marriage debate are emotional, philosophical, or religious in nature. However, this study is concerned with two specific questions that may be examined through a search of legal texts:  

Does marriage play a significant role in determining individuals’ legal rights and responsibilities under Iowa law? Could a separate system of domestic partnerships or civil unions provide equivalent rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples?

Many Iowa laws contain words such as “spouse,” “husband,” “wife,” and other words related to marriage. As a result, those laws ostensibly apply only to couples who have entered into a marriage which is legally recognized in Iowa. How many rights and responsibilities only apply to legally married individuals? When legally recognized marriage isn’t an option, what is the impact on individuals’ rights and responsibilities under Iowa law? Conversely, what legislation would need to be amended or reproduced in order to create a parallel system of domestic partnerships or civil unions that would provide equivalent rights and responsibilities to marriage? Determining where words related to marriage appear in Iowa law (and the number of times those words appear) will give some indication of not only the impact marriage has in Iowa laws, but also the magnitude of legislation that would be required to create a parallel system of rights and responsibilities for same-sex couples through domestic partnerships or civil unions.

Methodology Using automated processes, the complete text of the most recent version of the Iowa Code (Iowa Code 2007) was retrieved electronically on April 18, 2008, from the Iowa General Assembly Web Site at http://www.legis.state.ia.us. The text was indexed for efficient searching, and then searched for specific words related to marriage (a complete list of keywords appears at the end of this report).

Results A total of 1,817 keyword matches were found in the Iowa Code. The matches were found in 547 sections, across 193 chapters. The matching portions represent 2% of all sections, and 15% of all chapters of the Iowa Code.

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The matching sections cover a wide range of subjects, from campaign finance to franchise agreements, and gun control to license plates. (For a complete list of matches organized by chapter and section, as well as an index alphabetized by keyword, please refer to the document “Marriage in Iowa Law — Complete Results”.) The chapters and sections with the greatest numbers of matches are summarized below:

Top 10 Chapters 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Chapter 633, Probate Code (195 matches) Chapter 422, Individual Income, Corporate, and Franchise Taxes (125 matches) Chapter 598, Dissolution of Marriage and Domestic Relations (111 matches) Chapter 595, Marriage (86 matches) Chapter 321, Motor Vehicles and Law of the Road (75 matches) Chapter 411, Retirement System for Police Officers and Fire Fighters (65 matches) Chapter 249B, Medical Assistance to Institutionalized Spouses (61 matches) Chapter 597, Husband and Wife (58 matches) Chapter 97A, Public Safety Peace Officers’ Retirement, Accident, and Disability System (43 matches) 10. Chapter 144, Vital Statistics (41 matches)

Top 10 Sections 1. Section 321.34, Plates or Validation Sticker Furnished — Retained by Owner — Special Plates (67 matches) 2. Section 422.5, Tax Imposed — Exclusions — Alternative Minimum Tax (43 matches) 3. Section 411.6, Benefits (36 matches) 4. Section 249B.3, Notice of Spousal Support Debt — Failure to Respond — Hearing — Order (31 matches) 5. Section 422.7, “Net Income” — How Computed (27 matches) 6. Section 410.10, Pensions — Surviving Spouse — Children — Dependents (25 matches) 7. Section 252A.3, Liability for Support (23 matches) 8. Section 633.237, Presumption Against Filing Elective Share (21 matches) 9. Section 595.2, Gender — Age (20 matches) 10. Section 249A.3, Eligibility (19 matches)

Conclusions A rigorous analysis of the matching sections of Iowa law must be left to legal experts. However, at 1,817 keyword matches, the volume and variety of matches suggest that marriage plays a crucial role in determining a wide range of individuals’ legal rights and responsibilities under Iowa law. Additionally, the numbers suggest it would be difficult to create a parallel system of domestic partnerships or civil unions that would provide equivalent rights and responsibilities to marriage. More than 50% of keyword matches are for the word “spouse”; an additional 15% are for the word “marriage”. To provide equivalent rights and responsibilities, a system of domestic partnerships or civil 2

unions would either need to rewrite 547 sections of the Iowa Code, or redefine the words “spouse” and “marriage” within the context of Iowa law to include domestic partnerships and civil unions. Extending civil marriage to same-sex couples would likely require much less time and effort, and would create far less confusion. Thus, while many questions remain in the debate over same-sex marriage in Iowa, the data gathered by this study suggest answers to two of the most immediate questions:  

Marriage does play a significant role in determining individuals’ legal rights and responsibilities under Iowa law, and It would not be feasible to create a separate system of domestic partnerships and civil unions granting equivalent legal rights and responsibilities to civil marriage.

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Keywords For the purpose of this study, the keywords below were located within the text of the Iowa Code; a count of occurrences follows each keyword. (Keywords which were searched but yielded no match have been omitted from this list.) Keyword divorce divorced husband husband's marital marriage marriages married marry matrimony premarital remarried spousal spouse spouses spouse's unmarried unremarried unwed wedding wedlock widow widower wife wife's wives Total

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Count 24 8 72 4 86 271 11 97 10 6 17 4 45 910 74 44 21 2 1 5 17 6 3 74 4 1 1,817