AnalysisTennessee becomes the fifth state to authorize Notaries Public to perform marriages. The others are Florida, Maine, Montana, Nevada, and South Carolina. Tennessee Notaries join a long list of other designated officiants of weddings, including ministers, preachers, pastors, priests, rabbis, spiritual leaders of every religious belief, members of county legislative bodies, county mayors, judges, chancellors, former chancellors and judges, former county executives or county mayors, former members of quarterly county courts or commissions, the Governor, the Speaker and former Speakers of the Senate and House of Representatives, members of the General Assembly who have filed notice, law enforcement chaplains, members of legislative bodies of municipalities, county clerks of each county, former county clerks who occupied office on or after July 1, 2014, and mayors of municipalities.
Senate Bill 509 was quite brief. There are no additional provisions to regulate how Notaries perform marriages, but they must follow the rules required of all officiants.
Read Senate Bill 509.