§ 5144. Persons authorized to solemnize marriage
(a) Marriages may be solemnized by:
(1) a Supreme Court Justice, a Superior judge, a judge of Probate, an assistant judge,
a justice of the peace, a magistrate, a Judicial Bureau hearing officer, or an individual
who has registered as a temporary officiant with the Vermont Secretary of State pursuant
to section 5144a of this title;
(2) a member of the clergy ordained, licensed, or otherwise regularly authorized by the
published laws or discipline of the general conference, convention, or other authority
of his or her faith or denomination who:
(A) resides in this State;
(B) resides in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or New York or in the adjacent province of
Quebec, Canada, whose parish, church, temple, mosque, or other religious organization
lies wholly or in part in this State; or
(C) resides in some other state of the United States or in Canada and whose parish, church,
temple, mosque, or other religious organization lies wholly outside this State, provided
he or she has first secured from the Probate Division of the Superior Court in the
unit within which the marriage is to be solemnized a special authorization, authorizing
him or her to certify the marriage if the Probate judge determines that the circumstances
make the special authorization desirable.
(b) Marriage among the Friends or Quakers, the Christadelphian Ecclesia, and the Baha’i
Faith may be solemnized in the manner used in such societies.
(c) This section does not require a member of the clergy authorized to solemnize a marriage
as set forth in subsection (a) of this section, nor societies of Friends or Quakers,
the Christadelphian Ecclesia, or the Baha’i Faith to solemnize any marriage, and any
refusal to do so shall not create any civil claim or cause of action. (Amended 1965, No. 194, § 10, eff. Feb. 1, 1967; 1971, No. 22, eff. March 23, 1971; 1975, No. 1; 1979, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 26; 1981, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.); 1999, No. 91 (Adj. Sess.), § 28; 2007, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 2009, No. 3, § 9, eff. Sept. 1, 2009; 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 147; 2013, No. 164 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. May 28, 2014; 2017, No. 96 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. April 11, 2018.)