Vital records: marriage records.

(1) Existing law prescribes specified personal information to be included on birth, death, and marriage certificates. Under existing law, a certified copy of a birth or death record may only be supplied by the State Registrar, local registrar, or county recorder to an authorized person, as defined, who submits a statement sworn under penalty of perjury that the applicant is an authorized person. If an applicant for a birth or death record does not meet the requirements for an authorized person, the State Registrar, local registrar, or county recorder may only issue an informational certified copy of a birth or death record that contains a legend stating "INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY." Existing law also requires that each certified copy of a birth or death record contain specified information and be printed on sensitized paper with specified features. Existing law also requires an applicant for a certified copy of a birth or death record to pay, in addition to other fees applicable to the receipt of a copy of a birth or death record from the State Registrar, local registrar, or county recorder a fee of $1, to be used for the development of safety and security measures to protect against the fraudulent use of these records and defray the cost to local officials of any required security measures. This bill would also make these provisions applicable to a request for a certified copy of a nonconfidential marriage record, and would make conforming changes. By changing the definition of the crime of perjury, and by imposing new duties on local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law permits a county clerk to issue a confidential marriage license if prescribed conditions are met. Under existing law, a confidential marriage license is a confidential record and is not open to public inspection without an order from the court. Existing law requires a county clerk to maintain confidential marriage certificates as permanent records that are not open to public inspection except upon order of the court. Existing law permits a party to a confidential marriage to obtain a certified copy of the confidential marriage certificate, as prescribed. This bill would repeal the existing methods by which a party to a confidential marriage may obtain a certified copy of his or her confidential marriage certificate and would instead require that the above mentioned provisions relating to obtaining certified copies of birth and death records be applicable to a confidential marriage record, as specified. This bill would specify that an authorized person, for purposes of requests for certified copies of confidential marriage records, includes only a party to the confidential marriage. This bill would also prohibit the release of an informational certified copy of a confidential marriage record, as specified. By changing the definition of the crime of perjury, and by imposing new duties on local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law requires the State Registrar to appoint a Vital Records Protection Advisory Committee to study and make recommendations to protect individual privacy, inhibit identity theft, and prevent fraud involving birth and death certificates while providing needed access to the information contained in those records by persons seeking it for a legitimate purpose. This bill would add marriage records to the list of vital records under the committee's consideration for study and recommendations, and would make other technical and conforming changes. (4) Existing law requires the State Registrar to maintain comprehensive indices of registered certificates. Under existing law, comprehensive birth and death record indices, as prescribed, must be kept confidential and are exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act. Existing law also requires the State Registrar to maintain separate noncomprehensive birth and death record indices for purposes of public release and for law enforcement and fraud prevention. Existing law also prohibits specified uses of birth and death record files. Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor. This bill would apply these provisions to both comprehensive and noncomprehensive nonconfidential marriage indices. The bill would require that the noncomprehensive nonconfidential marriage record indices for public release and for law enforcement and fraud prevention be comprised of the name of each party to the marriage and the date of marriage. This bill would prohibit the noncomprehensive nonconfidential marriage record indices for public release from containing the maiden names of the parties' mothers. By changing the definition of a crime, and by imposing new duties on local officials, this bill would create a state-mandated local program. (5) The California Constitution requires a statute that limits the people's right of access to the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies to be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would declare that in order to protect personal privacy and reduce the risk of identity theft, it is necessary to enact provisions that generally restrict access to, and release of, marriage records. (6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.