The laws regulating marriage are quite uniform. The right to marry is considered very personal, and once the "age of majority," or when one can marry without the permission of a parent or guardian, is reached, it is the couple's sole decision whether or not to marry. However, below this age, parental consent is required though states do not require the consent of a parent or guardian who is not present in the country or who has abandoned his or her child. The age of majority is now universally eighteen, except in Mississippi, where the parties need to be twenty-one. While only three states, California, Kansas, and Massachusetts, have no statutory minimum age under which marriage licenses will not be issued, many states with a minimum age requirement do permit marriages between minors under that age. Virtually all states allowing the marrying of minors require court approval in addition to parental consent.

The Debate About Lowering the Drinking Age



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The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim that the sexual activity was consensual, and such sexual activity may be considered child sexual abuse or statutory rape. The person below the minimum age is regarded as the victim, and their sex partner is regarded as the offender, unless both are underage. The purpose of setting an age of consent is to protect an underage person from sexual advances. The term age of consent rarely appears in legal statutes.


Maryland Gun Laws
If you're concerned about breaking laws on underage dating, the first thing to know is that no such laws exist. However, you should be aware of statutory rape laws if you're dating someone younger than the legal age of consent in your state. Such laws are there to punish adults who take sexual advantage of minors.



Dana Anspach is a Certified Financial Planner and an expert on investing and retirement planning. The timing of your IRA contributions can determine how much they grow over time and how much you have to use in retirement. So, it's important to learn how early and late in life you can start socking money into your traditional and Roth IRA accounts. Prior to , the maximum age limit to contribute to a traditional IRA was If neither you nor your spouse has taxable compensation, you cannot contribute to an IRA in and beyond regardless of age.