If you don’t want to be embarrassed, you should make sure you read a proposed law before passing it.

Arkansas’ marriage-age crisis is over. A law that mistakenly allowed anyone — even toddlers — to marry with parental permission was repealed by a measure signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Mike Beebe, ending months of embarrassment for the state and confusion for county clerks.

Lawmakers didn’t realize until after the end of last year’s regular session that a law they approved, intended to establish 18 as the minimum age for marriage, instead removed the minimum age to marry entirely. An extraneous “not” in the bill allowed anyone who was not pregnant to marry at any age with permission.

Only lawmakers could bungle something like this the way they did. Can you imagine the number of girls around the age of 14, who are NOT pregnant, that are upset that they can no longer marry their 14 year old boyfriends.

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