Washington, D.C., May 1, 2026 — In a recent article published by The New York Sun, Nestpoint Managing Director John Thomas weighed in on the debate over first-cousin marriage in Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis signaled support for a future ban while acknowledging that the practice remains legal in the state. The report notes that Florida is one of roughly 16 states where first-cousin marriage is still fully legal, even as many others have moved to prohibit or restrict it.
The article explains that the issue resurfaced after a provision tucked into a broader Florida health bill would have barred first-cousin marriages entered into after July 1, 2026, but the measure ultimately died during the legislative process. It also highlights a broader policy tension: even where individual states ban cousin marriage, federal immigration law can still recognize such marriages if they were legally performed abroad.
Against that backdrop, Thomas told The Sun there is “a legitimate public-health and immigration-policy argument for greater scrutiny.” The article places that argument alongside public-health data showing elevated genetic and childhood health risks associated with first-cousin marriage, particularly where the practice persists across generations.
Thomas also pushed back on the idea that the issue should be treated primarily as a religious attack rather than a policy question. As quoted in the article, he said DeSantis was “correctly highlighting a public-health issue that affects integration and fiscal responsibility” and was “not ‘targeting’ a religion but applying the same evidence-based standards we would to any high-risk practice.”
As presented in The New York Sun, the Florida debate now sits at the intersection of public health, immigration policy, and cultural politics. Thomas’s remarks frame the issue in those terms, arguing that whatever the rhetoric surrounding it, the underlying policy questions are real and unlikely to disappear simply because the original legislative vehicle failed.
The full article, “Florida and the Fight Against First-Cousin Marriages,” was published by The New York Sun on May 1, 2026. You can read it here.
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