California's new law restricting the release of marriage license information went into effect on January 1.  This law is aimed at protecting private information and, as a result, curb identity theft.  The law requires people obtaining marriage license information to fill out an application that gives information about the requester.  This gives the authorities a record of who asked for the information in case it is later misused. 

This is already done regarding birth and death certificates, which have for a decade or more not been available without data about the person seeking the certificate. 

I think this law is a good idea and I hope more states follow California's lead.