From liberal to conservative and back to liberal again: Across North Dakota's history as a state, the divorce laws have swung in back and forth.
Is it time for another swing, this time to the conservative side?
No. Modern Americans put a premium on personal freedom, and that's not about to change. Some decades from now, the cycle might come around again, and states across the country might tighten their divorce laws.
But there's no sign of that happening yet. And in the absence of solid evidence that the proposed tightening would work, there's no call for North Dakota to be the first.
"North Dakotans wanting to get a divorce would need to wait one year and go through mandatory marriage counseling if a proposed law is approved," Forum Communications reporter Teri Finneman wrote.
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"Senate Bill 2367 would affect married couples with children. Marriages with substantiated allegations of domestic abuse would be exempt."
And "within the one-year waiting period, couples would need to participate jointly or separately in at least 10 one-hour marriage counseling sessions."
The impulse behind the proposal is understandable: Yes, divorce is especially hard on children. Yes, seeing one's parents get divorced boosts the odds of a young person having trouble in school, getting involved with crime and getting a divorce as an adult.
The trouble is that North Dakota (and almost every other state) tried to discourage divorce before -- and the policy didn't work. That's why it was changed in 1971, when North Dakota trailed pacesetter California by only a year in allowing no-fault divorce. No-fault divorces now are legal in all 50 states.
Some quick history: Once upon a time, Fargo was known as the Divorce Capital of the West.
North Dakota law in the late 1800s required only a three-month residency for a divorce. "People seeking divorces often registered at a hotel for the required three months, left town, and returned several months later when their 'residency' had been established," reports the website Fargo-history.com.
"At that time, the Northern Pacific train stopped in Fargo at noon for 10 minutes for lunch. So many people used that 10 minutes to check into a hotel, leave a bag, and return to the train that the proceeding came to be known as the 'Ten Minute Divorce.'"
That changed in 1899, when lawmakers passed a bill to require a one-year residency before a divorce. And across most of the 20th century, strict laws in North Dakota and almost everywhere else discouraged divorce by forcing a husband or wife to prove "fault" such as adultery on the part of the spouse.
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That, in turn, lasted until the 1960s, when the revolution in social mores swept aside such "old-fashioned" laws governing issues of sexual morality. Will lawmakers now turn the clock back?
Again, the answer very likely is no. Judging by the trends in Congress and state governments, most Americans continue to cherish the personal freedoms they've gained. There are popular movements to strengthen marriage and discourage divorce. But, importantly, they're movements that rely on persuasion, not coercion as state law would demand.
And that's not about to change. If anything, people's trust in government is lower -- not higher -- than it was in 1971.
The increase in personal choices has come at a cost. Life is not quite as stable or mapped out as it was in, say, 1955. But it's a whole lot more free, and on balance, that's a trade-off Americans seem very willing to make.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
