Q: I am trying to get information on a marriage that that occurred in October of last year. The marriage is a confidential marriage and I cannot obtain a copy because I am not one of the two married parties. My question is: Is the marriage certificate application public?
A: Section 511(a) of California’s Family Code provides that: the county clerk shall maintain confidential marriage certificates filed pursuant to Section 506 as permanent records which shall not be open to public inspection except upon order of the court issued upon a showing of good cause. The confidential marriage license is a confidential record and not open to public inspection without an order from the court.
Section 511(c) goes on to say that “the county clerk may conduct a search for a confidential marriage certificate for the purpose of confirming the existence of a marriage, but the date of the marriage and any other information contained in the certificate shall not be disclosed except upon order of the court.”
While Section 511 doesn’t explicitly provide that confidential marriage license applications are also to be kept confidential, it seems reasonable for an agency to treat them as confidential. Otherwise, the confidentiality of the marriage licenses would seem to be meaningless.
Bryan Cave LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to First Amendment Coalition hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation.