Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Legal Question

When John-Adrian marries Samantha, he will be 25 and she, 20. If you buy alcohol for your underage wife, is it against the law? Ignore, for the moment, the reality that no prosecutor would bother, to avoid the laff factor if nothing else.

Your Honor, I thought it would be okay, seeing that she's my wife..."

Young man, the law was designed to prevent older men from taking advantage of younger women.

Well, to be honest, Your Honor, that was the general idea, but...

3 comments:

Larry Sheldon said...

IANAL.

I think that depends on the stare.

For some things in some states, I think a married woman is fully emancipated. Some googling suggests
that emancipated minors can't vote or drink.

Erin said...

Larry, I have taught a couple emancipated minors, and that is true, at least in MA.

My sister was 22 and her husband 20 when they were married. I think they were offered champagne multiple times by chauffeurs, hotels, etc., all of whom I'm sure were able to access John's age since he made the honeymoon arangements. The ironic thing is he's really not into drinking, even with a meal.

Anonymous said...

Good thing he's not 24...at least he is old enough to rent a car for their honeymoon. Oddly enough, she is old enough to have been a licensed pilot for three years and also would be able to rent an aircraft...