HB1826ham002 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Greg Harris

Filed: 5/21/2007

09500HB1826ham002 LRB095 08127 AJO 36611 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 1826

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 1826, AS AMENDED, by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"PART I. CIVIL UNIONS

Section 101. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.

Section 102. Purpose. The purpose of this Act is to provide committed, adult same-sex and different-sex couples the opportunity to obtain the same obligations, responsibilities, protections, and benefits afforded or recognized by the law of Illinois to spouses.

Section 103. Religious freedom. Nothing in this Act shall interfere with or regulate the religious practice of any religious body. Any religious body, Indian Nation or Tribe or Native Group is free to choose whether or not to solemnize or not to officiate civil unions.

Section 104. Protections, obligations, and responsibilities. Two adults who enter into a civil union under this Act shall each be entitled to all the same legal obligations, responsibilities, protections, and benefits as are afforded or recognized now or in the future by the law of Illinois to spouses, whether they derive from statute, administrative or court rule, policy, common law, or any other source of civil or criminal law. That remains true even after a civil union has ended for any reason.

Section 105. Requisites of a valid civil union. Two adults who wish to enter a civil union shall be subject to the same protections, requirements and conditions imposed on individuals who wish to become spouses by Chapter 750 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes, provided that civil unions shall only be allowed between two persons who are at least 18 years of age.

Section 106. Civil unions prohibited. No one can enter a civil union with a person if she or he is, with someone else, still in a marriage or civil union or in a substantially similar legal relationship created in another state. A civil union is prohibited between an ancestor and a descendant; 2 siblings; an uncle and a niece or nephew; an aunt and a niece or nephew; and first cousins.

Section 107. Forms; documents.

(a) The Director of Public Health shall prescribe the forms, documents, and applications for entering into a civil union, pursuant to the analogous provisions of Chapter 750 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes.

(b) A copy of the civil union registration from the county clerk or the return provided to the Department of Public Health by a county clerk shall be presumptive evidence of the civil union in all courts.

Section 108. Dissolution. Parties to a civil union who wish to dissolve the civil union shall do so pursuant to Chapter 750 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes. Any person who enters into a civil union consents to the jurisdiction of the courts of Illinois to dissolve it.

PART II. MISCELLANEOUS

Section 201. Construction. This Act shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its purpose.

Section 202. Severability. If any part of this Act or its application to any person or circumstance is adjudged invalid, the adjudication or application shall not affect the validity of this Act as a whole or of any other part.

Section 203. 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, will be recognized in Illinois as a civil union.

Section 204. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 1, 2008.".