Earlier this summer I posted on this discussion group about the revised
proposed Kansas Supreme Court Rules 106 and 108 which would restrict access
to Kansas marriage records. The Supreme Court adopted the two rules which
severely restrict access to the marriage records and redact information on
the marriage records >from the public view. The new rules become effective
October 1, 2015.

The two new rules may be accessed at:
http://www.kscourts.org/kansas-courts/supreme-court/orders/2015/2015SC82.pdf
(Rule 106)
and
http://www.kscourts.org/kansas-courts/supreme-court/orders/2015/2015SC83.pdf
(Rule 108)

Rule 106 states that marriage license documents are confidential and not
subject to disclosure. A marriage licensing document is a cover sheet
completed with the marriage license application and the document containing
the personal and statistical information of the Kansas Department of Health
and Environment and the marriage license. Disclosure of the information is
restricted to the person to whom the marriage license was issued and
selected personnel of the court, and Department of Health and Environment.
A "limited" marriage license record is publically available with certain
information redacted: Social Security Number, applicant's date or city of
birth, applicant's mother 's maiden name, and other confidential
information. Marriage license documents created before October 1, 2015 may
be closed in whole or in part by redaction dependent upon the discretion of
the chief justice of the judicial district or the applicant may petition to
have their marriage document closed.

Rule 108 calls for the destruction of the confidential cover sheet of the
marriage license application mentioned in Rule 106 within one year of its
issuance. It also adds marriage license applications to the requirement that
they may not be destroyed until they are reproduced. In other words the
original marriage record may be destroyed once the state reproduces it but
the confidential marriage cover sheet with information is destroyed.


Jan Meisels Allen
Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee