"Couple finds that Justice Of Peace can't marry them" from the November 10, 1966 Door County Advocate
Couple finds that Justice Of Peace can't marry them
A legal question was raised when a migrant couple tried to get married last weekend on Washington Island by a justice of the peace.
The justice had some doubt as to whether he could perform the ceremony and the Island police radio called in Sunday night to ask whether or not a justice of the peace could marry a couple.
There was some doubt, so the couple was advised to wait until Monday morning so the matter could be checked out.
A check with District Attorney James Pankratz Monday revealed that while there was a time when a couple could have a justice join them in wedlock in Wisconsin, it was no longer possible.
Changes were made by the state legislature when the court structures were revised in 1958. Many duties formerly performed by local justices were taken away. They are now mainly concerned with the keeping of village ordinances and misdemeanors.
According to state statutes the only persons who can perform a marriage ceremony are duly authorized persons, including ordained clergy and judges of courts of record.
Further check of the statutes revealed that justice courts are not courts of record and there-fore a justice of the peace is no longer authorized to perform a marriage.
The specific powers given to a justice of the peace are clearly spelled out in the Wisconsin Statutes of 1965, performing a marriage not being one of them.
The statutes further state that within ten days of election to his office a justice of the peace shall take his official oath and a bond filed in the office of clerk of circuit court of the county.
The question was then raised as to whether or not the couple had obtained a marriage license, and when it was discovered they had not, they were advised to do so and then see a preacher if they were still of a mind to get married.
However, with the couple in question their ardor had not cooled by Monday morning, so they came from the Island to Sturgeon Bay and applied in the county clerk's office for a marriage license.
More obstacles were in the way of the wedding, for it was soon brought out that neither the prospective bride nor groom had a birth certificate and the necessary blood test results were not available.
To further complicate matters the woman, who turned out to be a divorcee from Missouri, was unable to produce a divorce decree.
While he enjoys playing aide to cupid on occasion, the county clerk had no alternative but to refuse to grant them a license until the Wisconsin marriage laws had been complied with.
At latest report the couple had gone back to the Island to finish their work on the potato harvest, both still single.
The moral of this little tale is: Make sure you have a marriage license if you want to get married and don't wake up a justice of the peace to tie the knot, because he just can't do it.
[author not stated]
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive