Religious freedom protection and civil union act

Public Act 0597 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 Public Act 098-0597  
SB0010 EnrolledLRB098 05104 HEP 35135 b
  AN ACT concerning civil law.  Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:   Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.  Section 5. Purposes; rules of construction. This Act shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purpose, which is to provide same-sex and different-sex couples and their children equal access to the status, benefits, protections, rights, and responsibilities of civil marriage. Nothing in this Act is intended to abrogate, limit, or expand the ability of a religious denomination to exercise First Amendment rights protected by the United States Constitution or the Illinois Constitution nor is it intended to abrogate, limit, or expand the Illinois Human Rights Act or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  Section 7. Private clubs. Nothing in this Act is intended to abrogate, limit, or expand the exemption for private clubs under Section 5-103 of the Illinois Human Rights Act.  Section 10. Equal access to marriage.  (a) All laws of this State applicable to marriage, whether  
they derive from statute, administrative or court rule, policy, 
common law, or any other source of civil or criminal law, shall 
apply equally to marriages of same-sex and different-sex 
couples and their children.
  (b) Parties to a marriage and their children, regardless 
of whether the marriage consists of a same-sex or different-sex 
couple, shall have all the same benefits, protections, and 
responsibilities under law, whether they derive from statute, 
administrative or court rule, policy, common law, or any other 
source of civil or criminal law.
 (c) Parties to a marriage shall be included in any 
definition or use of terms such as "spouse", "family", 
"immediate family", "dependent", "next of kin", "wife", 
"husband", "bride", "groom", "wedlock", and other terms that 
refer to or denote the spousal relationship, as those terms are 
used throughout the law, regardless of whether the parties to a 
marriage are of the same sex or different sexes.
 (d) To the extent the law of this State adopts, refers to, 
or relies upon provisions of federal law as applicable to this 
State, parties to a marriage of the same sex and their children 
shall be treated under the law of this State as if federal law 
recognizes the marriages of same-sex couples in the same manner 
as the law of this State. 
 Section 15. Religious freedom. Nothing in this Act shall 
interfere with or regulate the religious practice of any 
 
religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or Native 
Group. Any religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or 
Native Group is free to choose which marriages it will 
solemnize or celebrate. 
 Section 20. Severability. If any part of this Act or its 
application to any person or circumstance is adjudged invalid, 
such adjudication or application shall not affect the validity 
of this Act as a whole or of any other part. 
 Section 905. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of 
Marriage Act is amended by changing Sections 201, 209, and 212 
and by adding Section 220 as follows: 
 (750 ILCS 5/201) (from Ch. 40, par. 201) 
 Sec. 201. Formalities.) A marriage between 2 persons a man 
and a woman licensed, solemnized and registered as provided in 
this Act is valid in this State. 
(Source: P.A. 80-923.) 
 (750 ILCS 5/209) (from Ch. 40, par. 209) 
 Sec. 209. Solemnization and Registration.)
 (a) A marriage may be solemnized by a judge of a court of 
record, by a retired judge of a court of record, unless the 
retired judge was removed from office by the Judicial Inquiry 
Board, except that a retired judge shall not receive any 
 
compensation from the State, a county or any unit of local 
government in return for the solemnization of a marriage and 
there shall be no effect upon any pension benefits conferred by 
the Judges Retirement System of Illinois, by a judge of the 
Court of Claims, by a county clerk in counties having 2,000,000 
or more inhabitants, by a public official whose powers include 
solemnization of marriages, or in accordance with the 
prescriptions of any religious denomination, Indian Nation or 
Tribe or Native Group, provided that when such prescriptions 
require an officiant, the officiant be in good standing with 
his or her religious denomination, Indian Nation or Tribe or 
Native Group. Either the person solemnizing the marriage, or, 
if no individual acting alone solemnized the marriage, both 
parties to the marriage, shall complete the marriage 
certificate form and forward it to the county clerk within 10 
days after such marriage is solemnized. 
 (a-5) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require any 
religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or Native 
Group, or any minister, clergy, or officiant acting as a 
representative of a religious denomination or Indian Nation or 
Tribe or Native Group, to solemnize any marriage. Instead, any 
religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe or Native 
Group, or any minister, clergy, or officiant acting as a 
representative of a religious denomination or Indian Nation or 
Tribe or Native Group is free to choose which marriages it will 
solemnize. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a 
 
refusal by a religious denomination or Indian Nation or Tribe 
or Native Group, or any minister, clergy, or officiant acting 
as a representative of a religious denomination or Indian 
Nation or Tribe or Native Group to solemnize any marriage under 
this Act shall not create or be the basis for any civil, 
administrative, or criminal penalty, claim, or cause of action.
 (a-10) No church, mosque, synagogue, temple, 
nondenominational ministry, interdenominational or ecumenical 
organization, mission organization, or other organization 
whose principal purpose is the study, practice, or advancement 
of religion is required to provide religious facilities for the 
solemnization ceremony or celebration associated with the 
solemnization ceremony of a marriage if the solemnization 
ceremony or celebration associated with the solemnization 
ceremony is in violation of its religious beliefs. An entity 
identified in this subsection (a-10) shall be immune from any 
civil, administrative, criminal penalty, claim, or cause of 
action based on its refusal to provide religious facilities for 
the solemnization ceremony or celebration associated with the 
solemnization ceremony of a marriage if the solemnization 
ceremony or celebration associated with the solemnization 
ceremony is in violation of its religious beliefs. As used in 
this subsection (a-10), "religious facilities" means 
sanctuaries, parish halls, fellowship halls, and similar 
facilities. "Religious facilities" does not include facilities 
such as businesses, health care facilities, educational 
 
facilities, or social service agencies. 
 (b) The solemnization of the marriage is not invalidated by 
the fact that the person solemnizing the marriage was not 
legally qualified to solemnize it, if either party to the 
marriage believed him or her to be so qualified or by the fact 
that the marriage was inadvertently solemnized in a county in 
Illinois other than the county where the license was issued. 
(Source: P.A. 95-775, eff. 1-1-09.) 
 (750 ILCS 5/212) (from Ch. 40, par. 212) 
 Sec. 212. Prohibited Marriages. 
 (a) The following marriages are prohibited: 
 (1) a marriage entered into prior to the dissolution of 
 an earlier marriage, civil union, or substantially similar 
 legal relationship of one of the parties, unless the 
 parties to the marriage are the same as the parties to a 
 civil union and are seeking to convert their civil union to 
 a marriage pursuant to Section 65 of the Illinois Religious 
 Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act; 
 (2) a marriage between an ancestor and a descendant or 
 between siblings a brother and a sister, whether the 
 relationship is by the half or the whole blood or by 
 adoption; 
 (3) a marriage between an uncle and a niece, between an 
 uncle and a nephew, or between an aunt and a nephew, or 
 between an aunt and a niece, whether the relationship is by 
 
 the half or the whole blood; 
 (4) a marriage between cousins of the first degree; 
 however, a marriage between first cousins is not prohibited 
 if: 
 (i) both parties are 50 years of age or older; or 
 (ii) either party, at the time of application for a 
 marriage license, presents for filing with the county 
 clerk of the county in which the marriage is to be 
 solemnized, a certificate signed by a licensed 
 physician stating that the party to the proposed 
 marriage is permanently and irreversibly sterile; 
 (5) (blank). a marriage between 2 individuals of the 
 same sex. 
 (b) Parties to a marriage prohibited under subsection (a) 
of this Section who cohabit after removal of the impediment are 
lawfully married as of the date of the removal of the 
impediment. 
 (c) Children born or adopted of a prohibited or common law 
marriage are the lawful children of the parties. 
(Source: P.A. 94-229, eff. 1-1-06.) 
 (750 ILCS 5/220 new)
 Sec. 220. Consent to jurisdiction. Members of a same-sex 
couple who enter into a marriage in this State consent to the 
jurisdiction of the courts of this State for the purpose of any 
action relating to the marriage, even if one or both parties 
 
cease to reside in this State. A court shall enter a judgment 
of dissolution of marriage if at the time the action is 
commenced, it meets the grounds for dissolution of marriage set 
forth in this Act. 
 (750 ILCS 5/213.1 rep.) 
 Section 910. The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of 
Marriage Act is amended by repealing Section 213.1. 
 Section 915. The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and 
Civil Union Act is amended by changing Section 60 and by adding 
Section 65 as follows: 
 (750 ILCS 75/60) 
 Sec. 60. Respect for marriages and civil unions entered 
into in other jurisdictions Reciprocity. A marriage between 
persons of the same sex, a civil union, or a substantially 
similar legal relationship other than common law marriage, 
legally entered into in another jurisdiction, shall be 
recognized in Illinois as a civil union. A marriage, whether of 
the same sex or different sexes and providing that it is not a 
common law marriage, legally entered into in another 
jurisdiction, shall be recognized in this State as a marriage 
in accordance with the provisions of the Illinois Marriage and 
Dissolution of Marriage Act, except that Section 216 of the 
Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act shall not 
 
apply to marriages of same-sex couples validly entered into in 
another jurisdiction. 
(Source: P.A. 96-1513, eff. 6-1-11.) 
 (750 ILCS 75/65 new)
 Sec. 65. Voluntary conversion of civil union to marriage.
 (a) Parties to a civil union may apply for and receive a 
marriage license and have the marriage solemnized and 
registered under Section 209 of the Illinois Marriage and 
Dissolution of Marriage Act, provided the parties are otherwise 
eligible to marry and the parties to the marriage are the same 
as the parties to the civil union. The fee for application for 
a marriage license shall be waived in such circumstances.
 (b) For a period of one year following the effective date 
of this amendatory Act of the 98th General Assembly, parties to 
a civil union may have their civil union legally designated and 
recorded as a marriage, deemed effective on the date of 
solemnization of the civil union, without payment of any fee, 
provided the parties' civil union has not been dissolved and 
there is no pending proceeding to dissolve the civil union. 
Upon application to a county clerk, the parties shall be issued 
a marriage certificate. The parties' signatures on the marriage 
certificate and return of the signed certificate for recording 
shall be sufficient to convert the civil union into a marriage. 
The county clerk shall notify the Department of Public Health 
within 45 days by furnishing a copy of the certificate to the 
 
Department of Public Health.
 (c) When parties to a civil union have married, or when 
their civil union has been converted to a marriage under this 
Section, the parties, as of the date stated on the marriage 
certificate, shall no longer be considered in a civil union, 
but rather shall be in a legal marriage. 
 Section 997. Severability. The provisions of this Act are 
severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.