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Originally Posted by Angakuk
No, the state provides a copy of the marriage license along with instructions on how to fill it out and and a deadline for returning it.
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Filling out a form according to instructions makes you an agent of the state? When you fill out a loan application, are you an agent of the bank?
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The couple, obviously, has an interest in insuring that the marriage is properly recorded. Since the state (i.e. the county) provides me with the requisite form and instructions on how to properly fill it out it would appear to me that the state also has an interest in insuring that the marriage is properly recorded. That being the case, when I fill out and return the form I am acting on behalf of the interests of both parties. If I am acting on behalf of the interests of both parties am I not acting as an agent of both parties? It sure feels like I am.
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I changed my voter registration a couple of months ago. The state (i.e. the county) provided me with the requisite form and instructions on how to properly fill it out. It would appear to me that the state also has an interest in ensuring that the voter rolls are properly updated. I am acting in the interest of both parties - am I an agent of the state?
Or is it more like the state
gives you statutory authority to solemnize marriages and you choose to use that authority in your profession by filling out marriage licenses for people, because it's convenient for them?
I guess if you get annoyed over not getting paid by the state for exercising your statutory authority in furtherance of your profession, the most obvious solution would be to stop exercising it. I don't think the state would care very much at all. I'm not able to officiate marriages, and hardly anybody has hassled me about it ever.
This is just a weird way of thinking about it that I have never encountered before. The state entrusts all kinds of ministerial functions to private individuals, who are well positioned to incorporate those functions into their profession. Things like being a notary public, or signing death certificates, or solemnizing marriages. It serves a public interest and is efficient for everybody involved. I am allowed by statute to practice law in my state. It really never occurred to me to think that using that statutory privilege granted to me in order to earn a living would (i) make me an agent of the state or (ii) entitle me to a state paycheck.