I’ve been researching the law of marriage in Alabama. As of 1923, the law specified that “A man under the age of seventeen, and a woman under the age of fourteen years are incapable of contracting marriage.” Code 1923, section 8993.
At some point prior to 2003, the wording of the statute was changed to “A person under the age of 14 years is incapable of contracting marriage.” This is how the law stood when Judge Roy Moore is alleged to have courted various girls. (I use the word “courted” solely in order to remain neutral; here is a story about Judge Moore that suggests courtship.)
In 2003, by which time Roy Moore was 56 years old, the Alabama legislature amended the statute by replacing “14” with “16.” This is how the law stands today.
For those of you who have difficulty understanding plain English prose, and especially for those of you who have axes to grind against conservatives, let me add the following comments:
- I am making no moral judgments about Alabama law, then or now. In other words, I’m neither commending nor condemning the law. It was what it was and it is what it is. If Alabamians didn’t like the law, they could have changed it. Indeed, they did! If they don’t like the law as it currently stands, they can change it. Perhaps they will!
- I am making no moral judgments about Judge Moore—for example, that he’s a good man, a bad man, a pervert, a child molester, a lout, a creep, a pedophile, or a liar. I do give him the benefit of the doubt, however, just as I give anyone in his situation the benefit of the doubt. Judge Moore has denied any impropriety.
- I am making no legal judgments about Judge Moore—for example, that he broke or didn’t break the law. Once again, he has denied any illegality.
My aim in writing this post is simply to get the facts out, so that moral and legal discussion of Judge Moore’s behavior may proceed in an orderly, informed, and rational way. I am a lawyer and a historian by training and am quite good at doing legal research. If you don’t believe me, read this, which I researched and wrote when I was 24 and published when I was 25.
