Legal Marriage issues

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This might not be the answer your looking for. http://www.marysadvocates.org/civil/civil.html


Federal and State legislatures are restricted from making laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion. According to authoritative church teaching, those who choose Roman Catholic Marriage, may not hand over their marital contract to the power and will of the rulers of the State. According to the government's Bill of Rights, legislatures are forbidden from prohibiting people to freely exercise of their religion; for many, the terms of the marriage contract are specified by their chosen religion. If the state requires that everyone register marriages with the County Recorder, the state legislators can't force Catholic citizens to accept an entirely anti-Catholic set of terms for marriage contracts - binding parties to routine, no-fault divorce. The Catholic Marriage contract explicitly omits no-fault divorce and specifies grounds for separation while the marriage bond remains, and designates a third party arbitrator. The marriage bond remains for life. (See Divorce, Terms of Marriage in left menu) Mary's Advocates invites everyone who chooses True Serious Religious Marriage to bind themselves in writing, with a prenuptial agreement, to follow the rules of their church regarding separation, divorce, upbringing of children and support.

Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary

The legal union of two people. Once a couple is married, their rights and responsibilities toward one another concerning property and support are defined by the laws of the state in which they live. A marriage can only be terminated by a court granting a divorce or annulment.

Marriage is chiefly regulated by the states. The Supreme Court has held that states are permitted to reasonably regulate the institution by prescribing who is allowed to marry and how the marriage can be dissolved. Entering into a marriage changes the legal status of both parties and gives both husband and wife new rights and obligations. One power that the states do not have, however, is that of prohibiting marriage in the absence of a valid reason. For example, prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_marriage

A legally recognized marriage that can arise in some jurisdictions without a license or ceremony. Many states recognize a common-law marriage when two people capable of getting married live together as spouses and hold themselves out as such for a specified amount of time. http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/common-law_marriage

Colorado is one of a few states remaining which still allows parties to enter into a common law marriage, or a marriage without formal ceremonies.

"A common law marriage is established by the mutual consent or agreement of the parties to be husband and wife, followed by a mutual and open assumption of a marital relationship." People v. Lucero, 747 P.2d 660 (Colo. 1987).

This is the classic definition of a common law marriage, but as relationships end, there are often disputes as to whether the couple had a common law marriage. There is no hard and fast rule as to what constitutes a Colorado common law marriage, nor even one law which directly covers it. C.R.S. 14-2-104(3), part of the law which establishes the requirements for a Colorado marriage, simply states: "Nothing in this section shall be deemed to repeal or render invalid any otherwise valid common law marriage between one man and one woman."
http://www.colorado-family-law.com/e...iage/index.htm