Covenant Marriage Legislation: How the Absence of Interfaith Religious Discourse Has Stifled the Effort to Strengthen Marriage

human behavior within marriage remains unsolved.7 Invoking a modest response to the complex matter of how to make marriages last, proponents of strengthening marriage introduced the concept of covenant marriage.8 Covenant marriage legislation, a recent phenomenon in Louisiana, Arizona, 9 and Arkansas,' 0 arose for three reasons.First, research connecting the rise in the American divorce rate to the availability of nofault divorce sparked reconsideration of stricter requirements to obtain a divorce."Second, concerns about the well-being of children affected by divorce inspired a system that encourages lengthier separation and reflection periods for couples so that they may consider reconciliation."Third, and as a consequence of the first two concerns, particularCoolidge, Playing the Loving Card: Same Sex Marriage and the Politics of Analogy, 12 BYU J. PUB.L. 201, 238 (1997-98) ("Who decides what is marriage: the people, directly or through their elected representatives, or the courts?"... "What is marriage: A contract between autonomous individuals?An intimate, committed relationship?A unique malefemale sexual community?"). 7. Elizabeth S. Scott, Social Norms and the Legal Regulation of Marriage, 86 VA.L. REv.1901, 1903-04 (2000) (explaining that some scholars argue that the law cannot regulate behavior in intimate relationships, but suggesting that some legal reforms do have the power to reinforce positive social norms).8. Spaht, Why a Second Tier, supra note 2, at 2 (suggesting that covenant marriage legislation works to strengthen marriage). 9.See Lynne Marie Kohm, A Comparative Survey of Covenant Marriage Proposals in the United States, 12 REGENT U. L. REv.31, 38-39 (1999) (comparing covenant marriage acts in Arizona and Louisiana and tracing their roots).10. See E-mail from Arkansas State Representative Russ Hunt to author (Oct. 1, 2001, 17:59 EST) (on file with author) (offering Arkansas's "horrendous divorce rate" and the "public policy interest" as his principal reasons for sponsoring a covenant marriage bill).11.Id. at 31 (explaining the covenant marriage legislation drafters' commitment to restoring marriage in a no-fault divorce era); Jeanne Louise Carriere, "It's D jd Vu All Over Again": The Covenant Marriage Act in Popular Cultural Perception and Legal Reality, 72 TUL.L. REv.1701, 1746 (1998) (concluding that the potential for covenant marriage to improve the state of modem families lies in its call for a transformation in the modem approach to marriage, not in its legal result with respect to divorce).Every state accepts some form of no-fault divorce.