Issuance to Incapacitated Persons Forbidden

No license shall be issued when it appears that the applicants or either of them is at the time drunk, insane or an imbecile.  T.C.A. § 36-3-109.  This statute must be very narrowly construed to avoid a finding of unconstitutionality as a result of unreasonable interference with the fundamental right of persons to marry.  Op. Tenn. Att'y Gen. 98-011 (January 9, 1998).  Marriages entered into in disregard of this statutory requirement are not void, but merely voidable after an appropriate proceeding.  Bryant v. Townsend, 188 Tenn. 630, 221 S.W.2d 949 (1949); Hunt v. Hunt, 56 Tenn. App. 683, 412 S.W.2d 7 (1965); Coulter v. Hendricks, 918 S.W.2d 424 (Tenn. App. 1995).