They abolished marriage! Constitutional Challenge, No-Fault Divorce

They abolished marriage! Constitutional Challenge, No-Fault Divorce

  • Posted by Mary's Advocates
  • On September 24, 2017

Adult child of divorce, Matthew Johnston, told me during our interview about the constitutional challenge his Mom is making against New York State’s no-fault divorce legislation.  The Schoharie County divorce court issued the divorce in January 2017, and his Mom submitted her written argument to the Third Department Appellate Court in Albany, New York on August 17, 2017.

Matthew says his Mom, after being abandoned by her husband (Matthew’s Dad), needed financial support. She filed for civil separation to get money and she hoped her husband would reconcile their marriage.  Instead, Dad filed for no-fault divorce against Mom. The judge gave Dad the no-fault divorce he wanted and passed to Mom the debts Dad incurred leading up to the divorce decree.   Matthew says the no-fault divorce system is unjust because there is no consideration for protecting the spouse who was not the abandoner.

In her case, Matthew’s Mom shows that no-fault divorce is unconstitutional because it violates the due process requirements of the U.S. constitution, and the legislature is obligated to prove how unilateral no-fault divorce serves the state’s public interest.

Ronald Reagan signed the first U.S. no-fault divorce legislation in California, that Matthew said Reagan later regretted. Internationally, unilateral no-fault divorce was first enacted in Russia in 1918 during the Bolshevik revolution.  Matthew explains how they had ideas about a utopian, government-run, social order.  Thereafter, a national debate ensued and within 10 years the unilateral no-fault divorce laws were abolished because they obviously damaged the social order.

Rather than slowing unilateral no-fault divorce, the U.S. Federal Government has incentivized it, with “Child Support Enforcement and Family Support” (Title IV-D).  Billions of dollars are paid to state offices to employee workers who take money from a spouse who is court-ordered to pay child support.  The state employees’ livelihood is contingent on the courts issuing child support orders. I found, for example, that the state of Pennsylvania receives $132 million a year, which could cover salaries of $50,000 for 2,500 workers.  The states’ family service departments are in the ‘business” of collecting child support, and less business means less “pay” from the Federal Government.  States’ county family-offices employees need unilateral no-fault divorce, so courts can issue lots of child support orders.

Matthew rebuts the myth that adversarial divorce proceedings cause harm to children, estranging them from a parent.  He’s skeptical of the court’s supposed emphasis on doing what is best for children. “This idea that the emotional distress and hard feelings [toward one parent] comes from divorce proceedings is completely false. It has more to do with, actually, the wrongdoing than anything else.” Matthew says the tension in his relationship with his Dad would be alleviated if his Dad were to sincerely apologize, or at least be held accountable for his wrongdoing.

I told Matthew that the legislators added insult to injury be empowering judges to make things worse for children of divorce when they reward the parties who are abandoning and breaking their marriage promises.

Matthew describes how Marxist ideologies have proposed that monogamy is not natural, and some people (atheists or secularists) have adopted those beliefs and don’t think there is anything wrong with adultery.  However, other people with faith and religion value the institution of marriage, serving as the social order for stability and human relations.  The no-fault divorce legislation is merging are and muddying two things: “hippy style cohabitation” and “marriage.” When the states’ make no distinction, that is against the state’s public interest.

 

6 Comments

Kimberly Crook
  • Nov 1 2020
Michael Clark, I beg to differ with you, my Divorce is the most difficult. It involves the Circuit Court including the County Clerk, the Deputy County Clerk, the Court Administrator, the Judge himself, the original Attorney I was assigned, my Ex's Attorney, he filed, the Mediator, Court Orders, my Disability, 100%, the Federal Government, DHS and CBP. USAA Insurance. I have been going through vindictiveness, retaliation, intimidation, and false statements, and Insurance Fraud, total loss of income, and the Divorce was finalized 7/17/20, and to this day I am fighting to receive any of my settlement...literally Zero, the Judge did not provide me with representation when I original Attorney recused himself 2 days prior to the final hearing, the first time. Allowed the Judgement to be signed without my knowledge, I had to find out when I went to the Clerk's office to look at documents, he continued to falsely receive notices, emails, and letters from the Ex's Attorney, did not forward them to me, and then officially in court restated he recused himself for the 2nd time after the original damage happened, did not provide me with any defensive representation, denied me my right to see the Mediation after I corrected it, accepted it without my approval, and then I had to defend myself for 4 months which were a disaster, the Judge allowed him to recuse and did not give me time to find another attorney, before the Ex's attorney lambasted me with show cause order after order after order which in her scheme led to a $50,000.00 fine and total abatement of alimony since 2/28/20, left me in a severely damaged house (from a storm while my Ex was still living here), that he falsely filed a insurance claim, after I had one complete, that is not mortgageable in the state is in, did not address that I had stated to him, to the Mediator, to the Judge that I simply wanted to pay for the home, and now I have only my SSDI to pay the bills, and live on. This is the worst Divorce that has ever happened in the course it has taken in Michigan's history. I too learned the law, yet living in a extremely corrupt county where every official drink out of the same CUP, has left me totally defenseless, There is NO way I can afford an attorney, there is NO pro-bono to be seen, and I have no recourse to do anything. What could you possible say that could help me get this finished and allow me to begin living again?
Adam Garner
  • Jul 9 2020
The due process argument is unnecessary to deem no fault divorce unconstitutional in Article 1 Section 10 by the Constitution of the United States it states very clearly that no state shall " pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts..." As the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land and anything repugnant to the Constitution being invalid as demonstrated in the landmark case Marbury versus Madison all Acts by all states for the past 40 Years of no fault divorce have been unconstitutional and against the public interest. In fact the no-fault divorce law which began in California was written by the bar association the very lawyers who benefit from dividing up the wealth of families destroyed by a corrupt in fraudulent court system. By myself and creating a case to sue the state and federal court for the violations of many of my fundamental rights and civil liberties in pursuant of the conspiratorial agenda to extract money from those deemed unwillingly "non-custodial parents"... although those who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution ought to be protecting and preserving the Liberties of the individual national, it has become a juggernaut of fraud, corruption and conspiracy - this is easily proven. We Americans need to fight for our rights and against what is wrong and the evil done resulting in the destruction of families and our social fabric which is indeed a threat to our national security.
Karen Bianco
  • Aug 20 2018
My name is Karen. My husband waited until our 25th wedding anniversary and then walk out on me and the kids. He also did many hurtful things and I had no choice to file for divorce. I listened to my lawyers and filed for a no fault divorce. I've been trying to get my case settled for almost five years. Because I am a W2 worker and he has his own businesses I've been stuck with the costs of everything. I have been working 2-3 jobs to just pay the bills. We had 8 days of a trial and the continuation of the trial has been cancel for over 515 days.The judge even tried to give my case to another judge and make me start all over. I ask my lawyer questions and I don't get answers and it costs me more money. I need an honest person with morals to help me out.
Mary's Advocates
  • Aug 10 2018
Hi Chris, License and freedom are limited and contracts limit freedoms because natural justice requires that one owes what one contracts. One owes to repair damage when one reneges on those contracts. You wrote: "Liberty, in particular, is generally 'freedom', including freedom to choose for one's self where to live, work, and who (if anyone) is your life partner, etc." While one has freedom to choose where one lives, if one is in a home and owes a mortgage, one cannot get the government's civil court to order the lender to pay the occupant money if the occupant files a no-fault action against the lender. With mortgage contracts, if the occupant reneges on the contract, the occupant is required (as much as possible) to repair the damage done to the lender. That includes absenting oneself from the house. "IF" one chooses to be marriage partners with another and voluntarily agrees to work together to maintain one home for the unified upbringing of one's children, and one agrees that the other (of course) would have the right to live with his/her children in the same home unless the other committed some grave offense, "THEN" one has limited one's options to choose one's partner because one already has chosen one's partner. If one wants to renege on those promises, one is obligated to repair damage as much as possible that one causes. One does not earn the right to forcibly separate children from the other spouse who is counting on the marital obligations to be upheld, who is counting on exercising his fundamental right to live with and raise one's children.
Chris
  • Jul 19 2018
I'm no lawyer, but I don't think No Fault divorce itself is unconstitutional as claimed in this case. No Fault divorce is consistent with the 14th amendment's Due Process clause provision that an individual has a right to life, liberty, and property except through due process of law. Liberty, in particular, is generally "freedom", including freedom to choose for one's self where to live, work, and who (if anyone) is your life partner, etc. Legal marriage today is thus just a formal declaration of the relationship, a legal status, required in order to obtain a package of legal rights, benefits, protections by virtue of the relationship. Furthermore, no fault divorce provisions seem even more consistent with the spirit of the 13th amendment's anti-slavery clause, if you want to go there (one cannot be legally bound to live, work, or otherwise be forced in a continued relationship with another in any way, doing so is always a voluntary act). More fundamentally, people who are in a relationship that they do not want to be in anymore, for whatever reason or no reason, have an absolute right at any time to settle up their differences with the other party under fair and equitable standards and leave the relationship, not to be stuck in that relationship permanently unless and until one of a state's limited enumerated fault grounds are found to apply. The divorce proceeding in a court before a judge is "due process of law" for determining the rights and obligations of the parties to each other in the dissolving the relationship and thus resolving the controversy. We all know this, intuitively. Additionally, I really feel that in a no fault divorce a court should follow some different standards of proceeding than a fault case, which isn't always the case. For example, in a fault-based divorce case, the decision regarding distribution of property and award of alimony necessarily includes elements of restitution, or the imposing of payments for damages incurred / loss of the relationship. This is what I think Matthew is really after in her claim. In a no fault case, the same guidelines should not be followed, as neither party has been found in the action to have done any harm to the other, and both parties are on an equal footing. Traditional factors considered in these decisions, such as length of the marriage, become inappropriate, as they imply somebody has committed a fault and needs to be held accountable for the consequences thereof. In this respect, if an applicable fault-based divorce ground does not exist in the state, it simply means that such claims, such as abandonment and failure of a spouse to provide support in the Matthew case, simply can no longer be prosecuted as part of the divorce action itself. However, by the same token, I don't think that forecloses a spouse of pursuing an ex-spouse in a separate cause of action in the divorce proceeding, or a separate action if required, from claiming damages and pain/suffering incurred under general civil provisions. If that's true (and again, I'm no lawyer and couldn't say), it would mean the advent of no fault divorce actually expanded the relief available for a spouse's wrongdoing from a set of narrowly enumerated fault grounds to allowing consideration of any credible claim!
Michael Clark
  • Sep 26 2017
My name is Michael Clark, I have the biggest constitutional claim in the country related to my divorce decree, made in Fulton County NY, against the NYS Unified Court System, and especially the 3rd Appellate Division. A Family Court in Schenectady County made two court orders against me that do not exist and over thirty decisions are based on those court orders. I proved that those court orders did not exist and that the Judges of the 3rd Appellate were guilty of a cover and conspiracy related to my divorce and me catching a Judge having documents removed from my files. Now my case is almost settled and the United States Supreme Court know of the conduct of the 3rd Appellate. I went and learned the law and know I am winning my case. If you contact me I may be able to help you and just so you know, that 3rd Dept is scared of me. My case is something you would not believe and my ex and children are suing with me.