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.