These days it seems that nearly everybody believes that they need a marriage license to get married. Black's Law Dictionary 6th ed. gives the following definition "A license or permission granted by public authority to persons who intend to intermarry...". Intermarry according to the aforementioned dictionary means the mixture of races. So the point is the majority of people in the USA do not need a marriage license or permission of the State to get married.
Some one might well ask So what is the big deal? Well there are several potential problems with a marriage license one of which is that you are involving the State in your marriage contract so instead of the almighty joining you together it is the State that is joining you together and may not seem like a big deal either to some however if the State is in charge of the union of the marriage then maybe they are in charge of what issues from the marriage namely children. This can be a problem because of over zealous CPS workers and many of us have heard of and maybe even experienced CPS abuses. However I do not mean to imply that if you never got a marriage license to get married like my wife and I, that CPS will just leave you along. The point is to know your rights and enforce them. If you believe that you need permission from the State to get married then you probably think that CPS has a right to oversee the way you raise you children.