Short answer. Yes. The registrar must note the impediment and his findings on your application, but he issues the license anyway once the publication period is over. Only a court order stops it, and either the registrar or any interested party may go and ask for one.
What the law says
In case of any impediment known to the local civil registrar or brought to his attention, he shall note down the particulars thereof and his findings thereon in the application for marriage license, but shall nonetheless issue said license after the completion of the period of publication, unless ordered otherwise by a competent court
Family Code, Article 18 — Registrar's Notation of a Known Impediment. Read the full provision →
The registrar records, he does not adjudicate
Article 18 is unusually blunt about the registrar's role. Faced with an impediment he knows of or that someone brings to his attention, he shall note down the particulars thereof and his findings thereon in the application, and then shall nonetheless issue said license after the completion of the period of publication. The word nonetheless is the answer to the question. Deciding whether a marriage may go ahead is a judicial function, not a clerical one, and the Code deliberately keeps a local official from making that call at the counter on his own reading of the facts.
What the notation does instead
The notation is not an empty gesture. It puts on the face of the application, permanently, that the objection existed and what the registrar found about it. If the marriage is later challenged, that entry is contemporaneous evidence of what was known and when — which can matter a great deal to the question of whether a party acted in good faith. So a couple who are told 'we have to note something down' should not read it as harassment, and should not assume it is harmless either. It is a record that will outlast the wedding.
The only thing that stops issuance
Issuance is halted only by an order from a competent court, obtained either at his own instance or that of any interest party. The article then removes two of the usual obstacles to going to court: No filing fee shall be charged for the petition nor a corresponding bond required for the issuances of the order. That combination tells you what the Code intends. Objections are meant to be taken to a judge, cheaply and quickly, rather than settled by argument with a registrar who has no power to refuse.
If the impediment concerns you
If you are the couple, ask to see exactly what was noted and why, because the registrar's finding may rest on a document you can correct or a fact you can disprove before the wedding rather than years afterwards. If you are the person raising the objection — a parent, a first spouse, a relative within a prohibited degree — understand that telling the registrar is not enough on its own, because he must issue the license regardless. What actually stops the marriage is a petition to the court, and the article has already removed the fee and the bond that might otherwise deter you from filing it.
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 18 — Registrar's Notation of a Known Impediment
- Family Code, Article 35 — Void Marriages