RTP-area local music and culture

[Fred Stutzman <fred AT metalab.unc.edu>]

It seems that a number of communities are raising legal challenges to 
marriage-definition laws under state constitution equal rights clauses.  
NC's constitution, Art 1 Sec 1 defines equal rights, though its not really 
a crystal clear definition.  

I also heard a little blurb on NPR this morning, saying the ACLU was 
challenging a marriage-definiton law, on what seems to be the less-solid 
ground that a group of citizens found it to be unconstitutional.  The 
citizens rejected the law, and refused to abide by it.  

On another note, its interesting to see how San Fransisco was the tipping
point in all this, it seems like more and more communities each day are
following suit.  A very interesting social phenomena.



On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, Nathaniel Florin wrote:

> 
> I googled common-law marriages and found this:
> 
> http://www.itslegal.com/infonet/family/common.html
> 
> No idea if this is accurate at all, but some of the
> criteria for a common-law marriage have an air of
> deception about them. In SC "A common-law marriage is
> established if a man and woman intend for others to
> believe they are married." Colorado: "A common-law
> marriage may be established by proving cohabitation
> and a reputation of being married." It seems that if
> you trick people into believing you're married then
> you actually are.
> 
> Pennsylvania's is charmingly simple: "A common-law
> marriage may be established if a man and woman
> exchange words that indicate that they intend to be
> married at the present time."
> 
> Texas' is stupid: "A man and woman who want to
> establish a common-law marriage must sign a form
> provided by the county clerk..." Why not just go
> through the whole thing if you have to go to the
> county clerk's office?
> 
> Some of them seem to specify man and woman, and I'd be
> hard-pressed to imagine any of them would supersede or
> loophole through a "defense of marriage" law, and I'd
> think they wouldn't be necessary to establish a test
> case either. Seems a lot easier to just schedule a
> trip to Massachusetts some time after May 17th. I'd be
> happy to serve as a witness or best man and I'd even
> buy the first round afterwards.
> 
> Nate
> 
> --- Anne Gomez <annemgomez AT hotmail.com> wrote:
> > Sorry, NC is not a common law marriage state (last I
> > heard, there were only 
> > 4 - one is SC; can't remember the others).
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> 

-- 
Fred Stutzman
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Cell: 260-8508
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