Enlightening Conversation with a

Marriage License Bureau

About 20 years ago, my former wife, filed for divorce. We had seven (7)
children: five (5) daughters and two (2) sons. Our youngest at the time, our
second son, was five years old.

At the time, I prepared a counterclaim to the Petition for Dissolution her

attorney filed in Domestic Relations (DR) court. I met one afternoon with
the head of the Maricopa County Superior Court, Marriage License Bureau,
in downtown Phoenix.

The marriage license bureau was headed by a young woman of about age
25. I asked her to explain to me the general and statutory implications of
the marriage license. She was very cooperative, and called in an Assistant,
a tall Black man who at the time was working on an Operations Manual for
internal departmental use.

She deferred for most technical explanations to her Assistant. He walked

through the technicalities of the marriage license as it operates in Arizona.
He mentioned that marriage licensing is pretty much the same in the other
states -- but there are differences.

One significant difference he mentioned was that Arizona is one of eight

western states that are Community Property states. The other states are
Common Law States, including Utah, with the exception of Louisiana which
is a Napoleonic Code State.

He then explained some of the technicalities of the marriage license. He

said, first of all, the marriage license is Secular Contract between the
parties and the State. The State is the principal party in that Secular
Contract. The husband and wife are secondary or inferior parties. The
Secular Contract is a three-way contract between the State, as Principal,
and the husband and wife as the other two legs of the Contract.

He said, in the traditional sense a marriage is a covenant between the

husband and wife and God. But in the Secular Contract with the state,
reference to God is a dotted line, and NOT officially considered included in
the Secular Contract at all.
He said, if the husband and wife wish to include God as a party in their
marriage, that is a "dotted line" they will have to add in their own minds.
The state's marriage license is "strictly secular," he said. He said further,
that what he meant by the relationship to God being a "dotted line" meant
that the State regards any mention of God as irrelevant, even meaningless.
In his description of the marriage license contract, the related one other
"dotted line."

He said in the traditional religious context, marriage was a covenant

between the husband and wife and God with husband and wife joined as
one. (This is accomplished with a recording in a family bible, with three
witnesses.)

This is not the case in the secular realm of the state's marriage license
contract. The State is the Principal or dominant party. The husband and
wife are merely contractually "joined" as business partners, not in any
religious union. They may even be considered, he said, connected to each
other by another "dotted line."

The picture he was trying to "paint" was that of a triangle with the State at
the top and a solid line extending from the apex, the State, down the left
side to the husband, and a separate solid line extending down the right side
to the wife, a "dotted line" merely showing that they consider themselves to
have entered into a religious union of some sort that is irrelevant to the
State.

Marriage License Secular Contract Diagram STATE (primary party)

HUSBAND WIFE . (secondary party)
(secondary party) . GOD

He further mentioned that this "religious overtone" is recognized by the

State by requiring that the marriage must be solemnized either by a state
official or by a minister of religion that has been "deputized" by the State to
perform the marriage ceremony and make a return of the signed and
executed marriage license to the State.

Again, he emphasized that marriage is a strictly secular relationship so far

as the State is concerned and because it is looked upon as a "privileged
business enterprise" various tax advantages and other political privileges
have become attached to the marriage license contract that have nothing at
all to do with marriage as a religious covenant or bond between God and a
man and a woman.

By way of reference, if you would like to read a legal treatise on marriage,

one of the best is "Principles of Community Property," by William Defuniak.
At the outset, he explains that Community Property law descends from
Roman Civil Law through the Spanish Codes, 600 A.D., written by the
Spanish juris consults.

In the civil law, the marriage is considered to be a for-profit venture or

profit-making venture (even though it may never actually produce a profit in
operation) and as the wife goes out to the local market to purchase food
stuffs and other supplies for the marriage household, she is replenishing
the stocks of the business.

To restate: In the civil law, the marriage is considered to be a business

venture, that is, a for-profit business venture. Moreover, as children come
into the marriage household, the business venture is considered to have
"borne fruit."

Now, back to the explanation by the Maricopa County Superior Court,

Marriage Bureau's administrative Assistant. He went on to explain that
every contract must have consideration. The State offers consideration in
the form of the actual license itself - the piece of paper, the Certificate of
Marriage. The other part of consideration by the State is "the privilege to be
regulated by statute."

He added that this privilege to be regulated by statute includes all related

statutes, and all court cases as they are ruled on by the courts, and all
statutes and regulations into the future in the years following the
commencement of the marriage. He said in a way the marriage license
contract is a dynamic or flexible, ever-changing contract as time goes along
- even though the husband and wife didn't realize that.

My thought on this is can it really be considered a true contract as one

becomes aware of the failure by the State to make full disclosure of the
terms and conditions. (But remember in court, [presumption and
assumptions], so must be repudiated in all aspects or you give over
jurisdiction.)
A contract must be entered into knowingly, intelligently, intentionally, and
with fully informed consent. Otherwise, technically there is no contract.
Another way to look as the marriage license contract with the State is as a
contract of adhesion, a contract between two disparate, unequal parties.
Again, a flawed "contract." Such a contract with the State is said to be a
"specific performance" contract as to the privileges, duties and
responsibilities that attach.

Consideration on the part of the husband and wife is the actual fee paid
and the implied agreement to be subject to the state's statutes, rules, and
regulations and all court cases ruled on related to marriage law, family law,
children, and property.

He emphasized that this contractual consideration by the bride and groom

places them in a definite and defined-by-law position inferior and subject to
the State. He commented that very few people realize this.

He also said that it is very important to understand that children born to the
marriage are considered by law as "the contract bearing fruit" - meaning
the children primarily belong to the State, even though the law never comes
out and says so in so many words.

In this regard, children born to the contract regarded as "the contract

bearing fruit," he said it is vitally important for parents to understand two
doctrines that became established in the United States during the 1930s.

The first is the Doctrine of Parens Patriae. The second is the Doctrine of In
Loco Parentis.

Parens Patriae means literally "the parent of the country" or to state it more
bluntly - the State is the undisclosed true parent. Along this line, a 1930s
Arizona Supreme Court case states that parents have no property right in
their children, and have custody of their children during good behavior at
the sufferance of the State.

This means that parents may raise their children and maintain custody of
their children as long as they don't offend the State, but if they in some
manner displease the State, the State can step in at any time and exercise
its superior status and take custody and control of its children - the parents
are only conditional caretakers. [Thus the Doctrine of In Loco Parentis.]

He also added a few more technical details. The marriage license is an

ongoing contractual relationship with the State. Technically, the marriage
license is a business license allowing the husband and wife, in the name of
the marriage, to enter into contracts with third parties and contract
mortgages and debts. They can get car loans, home mortgages, and
installment debts in the name of the marriage because it is not only a
secular enterprise, but it is looked upon by the State as a privileged
business enterprise as well as a for- profit business enterprise. The
marriage contract acquires property through out its existence and over
time, it is hoped, increases in value. (This goes to legal term limited
conditional title or lease. The right to make a profit or to in-cure a loss)

Also, the marriage contract "bears fruit" by adding children. If sometime

later, the marriage fails, and a "divorce" results the contract continues in
existence.

The "divorce" is merely a contractual dissolution or amendment of the

terms and conditions of the contract. Jurisdiction of the State over the
marriage, over the husband and wife, now separated, continues and
continues over all aspects of the marriage, over marital property and over
children brought into the marriage. (Spousal support, child support,
visitation, education, health care, etc...State has a say forever!)

That is why family law and the Domestic Relations court calls "divorce" a
dissolution of the marriage because the contract continues in operation but
in amended or modified form. He also pointed out that the marriage license
contract is one of the strongest, most binding contractual relationships the
State has on people.

At the end of our hour-long meeting, I somewhat humorously asked if other

people had come in and asked the questions I was asking?

The Assistant replied that in the several years he had worked there, he was
not aware of anyone else asking these questions. He added that he was
very glad to see someone interested in the legal implications of the
marriage license and the contractual relationship it creates with the State.
His boss, the young woman Marriage Bureau department head stated,
"You have to understand that people who come in here to get a marriage
license are in heat. The last thing they want to know is technical, legal, and
statutory implications of the marriage license."

I hope this is helpful information to anyone interested in getting more

familiar with the contractual implications of the marriage license. The
marriage license, as we know it, didn't come into existence until after the
Civil War and didn't become standard practice in all the States until after
1900, becoming firmly established by 1920. In effect, the States or
governments appropriated or usurped control of marriages in secular form
and in the process declared Common Law applicable to marriages
"abrogated."