United States — Maine Act or statute

United States — Maine legislation

Maine Revised Statutes, Title 19-A, § 701: Prohibited marriages; exceptions, 1995

This section makes certain marriages void, including out-of-state marriages done to evade the law, marriages between specified relatives, marriages by some persons under guardianship without required approval, polygamous…

marriage eligibility

Professional statute overview

Enactment structure, operative effect and source provenance

Official source

01

Purpose and legislative effect

“This section makes certain marriages void, including out-of-state marriages done to evade the law, marriages between specified relatives, marriages by some persons under guardianship without required approval, polygamous marriages, and marriages involving missing or false prior-marriage information.”

Use this record to locate individual provisions, understand the instrument’s recorded structure, and move from a research summary to the exact source text.

02

How the instrument operates

  1. 01

    Start with the recorded version

    Enacted 1995 · Source version 1 Oct 2025. The date shown identifies this source expression and should not be treated as proof that no later change exists.

  2. 02

    Locate the controlling provision

    Use the provision map, part headings and full-text filter to move from the broad subject to the exact legal language.

  3. 03

    Read conditions and exceptions together

    Keep subsections, definitions, provisos and cross-references in context before drawing a legal conclusion.

  4. 04

    Verify currency and official wording

    Confirm later legislation, commencement notices and corrections with the official publisher before advice, filing or reliance.

03

Research entry points

Selected provisions across the instrument. Open any row to continue with the exact stored text.

Prohibited marriages; exceptions

This section makes certain marriages void, including out-of-state marriages done to evade the law, marriages between specified relatives, marriages by some persons under guardianship without required approval, polygamous marriages, and marriages involving…

Section 701

04

Source and current-law status

Source record view

Source record from legislature.maine.gov · Enacted 1995 · Source version 1 Oct 2025

Verify current force

The source record does not state a definitive current-law status. Check the official publisher and later amendments before relying on this text.

Source-indexed provision map

Sections and provisions

Search by section, heading, part or exact legal wording. Every result remains linked to the stored source record.

Showing 1 of 1 provisions

Provision
§ 701Prohibited marriages; exceptionsProvision

This section makes certain marriages void, including out-of-state marriages done to evade the law, marriages between specified relatives, marriages by some persons under guardianship without required approval, polygamous marriages, and marriages involving missing or false prior-marriage information.

1. Marriage out of State to evade law. When residents of this State, with intent to evade this section and to return and reside here, go into another state or country to have their marriage solemnized there and afterwards return and reside here, that marriage is void in this State. [PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. B, §2 (NEW); PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. E, §2 (AFF).] 1-A. Certain marriages performed in another state not recognized in this State. Any marriage performed in another state that would violate any provisions of subsections 2 to 4 if performed in this State is not recognized in this State and is considered void if the parties take up residence in this State. [IB 2011, c. 1, §5 (AMD).] 2. Prohibitions based on degrees of consanguinity; exceptions. This subsection governs marriage between relatives. A. A man may not marry his mother, grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, brother's daughter, sister's daughter, father's sister, mother's sister, the daughter of his father's brother or sister or the daughter of his mother's brother or sister. A woman may not marry her father, grandfather, son, grandson, brother, brother's son, sister's son, father's brother, mother's brother, the son of her father's brother or sister or the son of her mother's brother or sister. A person may not marry that person's parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, sibling, nephew, niece, aunt or uncle. [IB 2011, c. 1, §5 (AMD).] B. Notwithstanding paragraph A, a man may marry the daughter of his father's brother or sister or the daughter of his mother's brother or sister, and a woman may marry the son of her father's brother or sister or the son of her mother's brother or sister as long as, pursuant to sections 651 and 652, the man or woman provides the physician's certificate of genetic counseling. [PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. B, §2 (NEW); PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. E, §2 (AFF).] [IB 2011, c. 1, §5 (AMD).] 3. Persons subject to guardianship. A person for whom a guardian or limited guardian has been appointed under Title 18‑C, section 5‑301 may not contract marriage without the approval of the appointed guardian. For persons under limited guardianship, this subsection applies only if the court has granted the specific power to contract for marriage to the guardian. A. [PL 2011, c. 542, Pt. A, §20 (RP).] B. [PL 2011, c. 542, Pt. A, §20 (RP).] [PL 2017, c. 402, Pt. C, §35 (AMD); PL 2019, c. 417, Pt. B, §14 (AFF).] 4. Polygamy. A marriage contracted while either party has a living spouse from whom the party is not divorced is void. [PL 2019, c. 340, §14 (AMD).] 5. Same sex marriage prohibited. [IB 2011, c. 1, §5 (RP).] 6. Marriage void. A marriage contracted when either party has failed to submit a certificate or certified copy of the divorce decree or annulment of the last marriage or the death record of the last spouse or when either party has intentionally lied about the number of previous marriages is void. [PL 2019, c. 340, §15 (NEW).]
Section 701Verify source

Legislative relationships

0 referenced instruments

Names are derived from the stored provision headings and citation-enrichment layer. Treat this as a research index and verify each relationship against the source text.

No structured legislative relationships were detected

The statute remains fully searchable by provision. Consult the source text for amendments and cross-references that have not yet been indexed.

Recorded versions and source checkpoint

1 version available in this collection

Current-law checkpoint
  • 1 Oct 2025 · currentEnglish

Source-linked research

Ask AI about this statute

The overview, provisions, and source records above are public. Continue in a separate conversation with this statute’s jurisdiction and source version attached.

No legal research model is currently available.

Sign in

About this LexChat collection

Statute information is organised from identified legislative sources for professional research. Corrections can be reported to hello@esheria.ai.