Divorce law in early days: a whole lot different

Metropolitan News-Enterprise: “‘The marriage relation is the foundation of all society, and is not to be severed on slight ground or for trivial causes. The policy of the law, therefore, is against granting divorces.’ That pronouncement came in a 1902 California Supreme Court opinion. … Nowadays, by contrast, a marriage is thought of by many as a transitory state in one’s life journey, with marital vows being but a tentative statement of present intent. The posture of the law with respect to divorce has been since the advent of a ‘no-fault’ system in 1970: ‘You want it, you got it.’”