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73 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1547 (1997-1998)
For the Sake of the Children: Recapturing the Meaning of Marriage

handle is hein.journals/tndl73 and id is 1559 raw text is: FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN: RECAPTURING THE MEANING OF MARRIAGE Katherine Shaw Spaht* Though American divorce law was never intended in principle to be as unu- sual as it has turned out in fact, it nevertheless carries a powerful ideology, sending out distinctive messages about commitment, responsibility, and de- pendency.... The American story about marriage, as told in the law and in much popular literature, goes something like this: marriage is a relationship that exists primarily for the fulfillment of the individual spouses. If it ceases to perform this function, no one is to blame and either spouse may terminate it at will1 I. INTRODUCTION As Mary Ann Glendon has remarked, the content of the story told in American marriage has shifted dramatically over time. She de- scribes the transformation of the meaning of marriage in the follow- ing terms: The redefinition of marriage from a relationship that could be legally terminated before the death of one of the spouses * Jules F. and Frances L. Landry Professor of Law, Lousiana State University Law Center. The author drafted the Louisiana Covenant Marriage law. The author wishes to acknowledge the influence and inspiration of Mary Ann Glendon whose letter is taped to the wall by my computer, a letter that acknowledges the wisdom of St. Ignatius Loyola, to work as though everything depended on you and await the results as though everything depended on Him; the extraordinary opportunity afforded the author to work closely with Representative Tony Perkins, the legislator who selected Covenant Marriage as the solution to easy divorce in Louisiana; the powerful contributions of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead's article Dan Quayle Was Right, THE ATLANuIc MoNTHLY, Apr. 1993, at 47, and of Maggie Gallagher's book THE ABOLION OF MARRIAGE: How WE DESTROY LASTING LovE (1996), which the author used as a prop during testimony before the Louisiana legislative committees; the encouragement of those interested in the Marriage Movement, such as The Institute for American Values; the invaluable advice and editorial assistance of her brother, Marshall Shaw; and the dedicated effort and valuable assistance of Candace Cenac, her research assistant, and Madeline Babin, who continually revised this manuscript. 1 MARY ANN GLENDON, ABORTION AND DIVORCE IN WESTERN LAW 106, 108 (1987) [hereinafter GLENDON, ABORTION AND DIvoRcE].