Colorado Might Ban All Underage Marriages—No Exceptions.

What This Bill Actually Does

Under current Colorado law, the baseline age to tie the knot is 18. However, there is a specific carve-out in Colorado Revised Statutes 14-2-106: if a 16- or 17-year-old wants to get married, they can currently petition the court for judicial approval. When this happens, a judge appoints a Guardian ad Litem (GAL)—a legal advocate tasked with figuring out if the marriage is actually in the minor's best interest rather than the result of coercion or pressure. If the judge gives the green light, the county clerk can legally issue the marriage license.

Senate Bill 26-048 takes a giant eraser to that entire exception. It outright repeals the judicial approval process, meaning county clerks will be completely barred from issuing marriage licenses to anyone under 18, regardless of their circumstances. Specifically, the bill strikes the language in the law that validates underage marriages and repeals Section 14-2-108, which outlined the specific legal steps a minor had to take to get a judge's permission.

But the bill doesn't stop there; it makes a subtle but massive legal change to how mistakes are handled. Under the old rules, an underage marriage obtained without proper judicial approval was considered voidable—meaning it was treated as legally valid until someone actively challenged it in court. This bill changes that critical legal term to VOID. This means any underage marriage license issued after this bill takes effect is completely invalid from the moment it is signed, as if it never existed. To put it simply, this legislation turns a flexible rule into a hard line, completely eliminating the concept of legal child marriage in Colorado.

What It Means for You

For the vast majority of Coloradans, this bill won't change your daily routine. But if you are a parent of teenagers, a youth advocate, or a young person contemplating early marriage, this establishes a very real, very hard boundary. Once this bill goes into effect—which is slated for August 12, 2026, assuming the legislature adjourns on time and no ballot petitions are filed—getting married before your 18th birthday will simply no longer be a legal option in Colorado. Period.

The conversation around this bill at the Capitol often centers heavily on child protection and preventing coercion. Advocates for banning underage marriage argue that minors inherently lack the legal capacity to sign binding contracts, file for divorce, or secure safe housing independently. This legal gray area can make them highly vulnerable if a marriage turns abusive, as they essentially lack the adult legal tools to escape it. On the flip side, some argue that older teens in unique circumstances—like those who are already emancipated from their parents or those who are already parenting children of their own—should retain the right to marry with careful judicial oversight. Regardless of where you stand on that debate, this legislation means families and teens will need to navigate those complex life situations without marriage as an available legal framework.

If this is an issue you care deeply about, you don't have to just watch from the sidelines. Here are a few concrete steps you can take right now to get involved:

• Contact your state senator: The bill just moved out of its first committee, so now is the perfect time to email your representatives with your perspective before it hits the Senate floor.
• Watch the Appropriations Committee calendar: This is the bill's next stop. While usually a rubber stamp for minor fiscal impacts, it is the next public checkpoint where testimony or outreach can make an impact.
• Talk to your teens: Use this legislative shift as a natural prompt to discuss long-term legal, financial, and relational milestones with the young adults in your life.

What It Means for Your Business

At first glance, a bill about marriage ages doesn't look like a business issue. And frankly, for a tech startup, a restaurant owner, or a commercial construction firm, it really isn't. But if you operate in the wedding and events industry, the family law sector, or manage county government operations, there are some operational and compliance tweaks you'll need to keep on your radar as this moves forward.

For county clerk and recorder offices, this actually simplifies your compliance checklist. You will no longer need to process judicial approval paperwork, coordinate with court systems, or verify court orders for 16- and 17-year-old applicants. For family law attorneys and contract Guardian ad Litem (GAL) attorneys, this does mean a slight reduction in your potential casework. According to state data, courts appoint GALs for underage marriage petitions about 16 times a year. While that's a tiny fraction of total legal work statewide, it is a specific niche of family law that will completely vanish.

Wedding venues, photographers, and event planners should also pay careful attention to that crucial legal shift from "voidable" to "void." If an underage couple somehow obtains a license and you provide services, the marriage itself holds zero legal weight. You should ensure your standard contracts—which usually require clients to be legally capable of signing a binding agreement—reflect the absolute 18-year-old age minimum to protect your business from potential liability or contract disputes.

To make sure your business is prepared for this shift, here is what you should do this week:

• Review your client intake forms: If you are a county office, a legal clinic, or a religious institution, flag any forms or software fields that currently accommodate the "under 18 with judicial approval" exception so they can be updated by late summer 2026.
• Update your event contracts: Wedding vendors should double-check that their terms of service explicitly state that the signing parties must be at least 18, ensuring you aren't booking events that can't legally happen.
• Adjust your revenue projections: If you are a GAL contractor who occasionally takes these cases, adjust your expected billable hours accordingly—though the state only expects a total drop of about $7,000 statewide.

Follow the Money

From a fiscal perspective, this is a rare piece of legislation that actually saves the state money—albeit pocket change in the grand scheme of a multi-billion dollar state budget. Because the state will no longer need to appoint a Guardian ad Litem to investigate underage marriage requests, the Office of the Child's Representative will see its budget reduced by exactly $7,125 per year starting in Fiscal Year 2026-27. The state calculates this based on an average of 16 underage marriage petitions filed annually over the last four years, each requiring roughly four hours of a contract attorney's time at a rate of $110 per hour.

On the revenue side, the financial impact is practically invisible. A marriage license in Colorado currently costs $30. That fee is split: $20 goes to the Colorado Domestic Abuse Program Fund, $3 goes to the Vital Statistics Records Cash Fund, and $7 is retained by the issuing county. Losing roughly 16 of those applications a year means a total combined revenue loss of less than $500 statewide. The trial courts will also lose a tiny bit of filing fee revenue from those canceled petitions, but the state's official Fiscal Note classifies this workload and revenue reduction as "minimal," requiring no major budget adjustments.

Where This Bill Stands

Senate Bill 26-048 was introduced by Senators Nick Hinrichsen and Janice Marchman, along with Representative Junie Joseph, on January 27, 2026. It recently cleared its first major legislative hurdle, passing out of the Senate Committee on State, Veterans, & Military Affairs unamended on February 17, 2026. This means the core idea of the bill has strong initial support and hasn't been watered down by compromises or rewrites.

Because the bill includes that small $7,125 appropriation reduction for the Office of the Child's Representative, it was automatically referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. This is standard operating procedure at the Capitol for any bill that impacts the state budget, even when it ultimately saves taxpayer money. Assuming it passes Appropriations smoothly—which is highly likely given the negligible fiscal impact and the lack of opposition amendments so far—it will head to the full Senate floor for a debate and a vote. Given its current trajectory and bipartisan-style straightforwardness, expect this bill to make steady, uninterrupted progress through the legislature this spring.