Colorado used to be an anti-slavery leader.  

But now Colorado courts are turning divorce proceedings into forcible remarriages.  The U.S. and United Nations denounce forcible marriage as a form of slavery and a human rights abuse.

There is only one legal basis to be divorced in Colorado. “Once the judge says your marriage is irretrievably broken, the judge has to give you a permanent divorce decree,” explains Gleneagle resident Christopher Stone, a disabled veteran who has been mired in his divorce since 2020.

Stone’s first divorce hearing was in 2021 in El Paso County, Colorado.  Stone says “I became suspicious when the judge mocked me for my service disabilities.  So I was equally relieved when he declared the marriage was broken and dissolved.  I thought I could get on with my life.”

But two weeks later Stone got notice that his judge had revoked his divorce, effectively forcibly remarrying him to his ex.  “Instead of freedom, we got slavery,” Stone relates, “Judge Diana May later wrote it was harmless because I didn’t have another wife lined up.”

But Colorado divorces are final by law, even if in error.  “There is no provision or jurisdiction for revoking divorces,” says Stone, who is concerned that courts can now revoke any divorce anytime.  “The right to be married or unmarried is a core liberty.  Imagine getting notice years later that your previous marriage is back on.”

This month, the Colorado Court of Appeals greenlighted forced marriage in an initial opinion on the case.  Stone reports “Judges Grove, Freyre, and Lum refuse to uphold our constitution and divorce laws -- now calling them mere ‘technical requirements’ that are ‘beside the point’.”  The court also failed to review many other civil rights issues in Stone’s case.

Stone estimates the matter has cost him over $250,000 in fees and costs so far.

Stone is calling for judicial misconduct investigations while he prepares for further appeal to both the Colorado Appellate and Supreme Court.  “In the longer term,” Stone concludes, “We need a return to citizen election of judges, full transparency of judicial discipline and performance, and to replace disciplinary board insiders with civil rights advocates.”