New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson signed SB 427, denying legal recognition to out-of-state same-sex marriages

On May 14, 2004, New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson signed Senate Bill 427 (Chapter 100, Laws of 2004) into law, enacting a statutory bar to the legal recognition of same-sex marriages contracted in other states. The act repealed and reenacted RSA 457:3 — the state's out-of-state marriage recognition statute — to withhold legal effect from any out-of-state marriage that would be prohibited if performed in New Hampshire. Because RSA 457:1 confined marriage to opposite-sex couples, the operative clause of SB 427 rendered all validly performed out-of-state same-sex marriages without legal standing in New Hampshire.

The non-recognition provision functioned as a state-level parallel to the federal Defense of Marriage Act: it did not ban same-sex marriage within New Hampshire (no such marriages were being performed in-state in 2004), but it ensured that couples who had legally married elsewhere carried no legal status across the state line. Massachusetts began issuing same-sex marriage licenses on May 17, 2004 — three days after SB 427 was signed — making New Hampshire's non-recognition bar immediately operative for couples who crossed the border. Rights automatic for all other lawfully married out-of-state couples — inheritance, medical decision-making, spousal privilege, next-of-kin status — were withheld from same-sex couples by this act.

The same legislation established a legislative-executive-judicial commission to study all aspects of same-sex civil marriage and its legal equivalents, including civil unions and domestic partnerships, with a final report due to the governor and legislative leadership by December 1, 2005. The commission's mandate included examining legal and policy implications of extending marriage rights to same-sex couples and reviewing the applicability of other states' laws in New Hampshire — a secondary provision that did not alter the operative recognition bar enacted by the same act.

Updates

2009-06-03 — New Hampshire legalized same-sex marriage, superseding SB 427 recognition bar [3]

Governor John Lynch signed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in New Hampshire, effective January 1, 2010. Because same-sex marriages became lawful to perform in the state, the recognition bar enacted by SB 427 — which applied only to marriages that "would be prohibited" under New Hampshire law — was superseded.

2015-06-26 — Obergefell v. Hodges constitutionally foreclosed remaining recognition bars [5]

The U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to license and recognize same-sex marriages, constitutionally foreclosing any remaining recognition bar of the type enacted by SB 427.