SB36 authorizes a family court to grant an “absolute divorce” on the grounds of either a six-month separation between the parties or “irreconcilable differences” based on reasons stated by the complainant.
The Senate passed SB36 on March 20, 2023, by a vote of 33 to 10. We have assigned pluses to the nays because ‘no fault divorce’ is blatantly unjust and unconstitutional. It permits persons to commit serious acts of injury against their spouses and children (e.g., adultery or abandonment) with impunity—thereby aiding and abetting violators of the marital covenant while denying victims due process of law. Innocent parties are sued with no right to their day in court. It also mistakenly assumes that valid grounds for divorce, along with marriage itself, are to be determined exclusively, even frivolously, by the government. Yet, nothing in the Bill of Rights or the 14th Amendment can be used to render marriage vows as meaningless. On the contrary, marriage, being coeval with mankind, is ordained by God, not the State. The most sacred of all human institutions, marriage is a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman, whose one-flesh union serves as the foundation of the family. God-honoring marriages are essential to securing the blessings of liberty and self-government for our children, whereas the fallout from ‘no-fault divorce’ has been devastating. Maryland should seek to protect families rather than tear them apart.