Chez Chesler

Wichita Eagle | 07/27/2005 | Marriage to minor can't stop sex charge I've asked before, if statutory rape is because minors can't give consent to sex, and if marriage is no longer a bar to prosecution of rape, why isn't it rape when marriage exists in which one (or both) members are below the age of consent.

It is unlawful in Kansas for a person under 16 to have sex -- unless they are married, [Whitney] Watson [, spokesman for Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline] said. Otherwise, the law says they can't consent to have sex. He didn't know how many people under 16 might be married.

Notwithstanding that analysis and the headline, this Nebraska case may not address the issue as the child bride, now 14, was already pregnant when she got married at age 13.

"The idea... is repugnant to me," said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. ... He said the marriage is valid, thanks to the "ridiculous" Kansas law, "but it doesn't matter. I'm not going to stand by while a grown man... has a relationship with a 13-year-old -- now 14-year-old -- girl."

It would be interesting if Bruning were presented with a case of two 16-year-olds who were lawfully married outside Nebraska and without evidence of pre-marital sex.