Waite v. Waite
Oct 05, 2004OUTCOME: Appellate Court held for Petitioner.
The 14th Court of Appeals in Houston held that the District Court's exercise of jurisdiction over divorce case did not violate the husband's rights under free exercise and establishment clauses of the ... First Amendment, despite thehusband's claim that the marriage was a purely ecclesiastical union. The case involved no-fault divorce in Texas, which has been the law since the 70s but which has been brought up before the legislature practically each session since its enactment, usually by conservative groups who want to do away with no-fault divorce and replace it with "fault" divorce. (In a "fault" divorce, one party has to prove cruelty, or adultery, or abandonment in order to obtain a divorce from the other party.) The 14th Court of Appeals in Houston made it clear that no-fault divorce was here to stay in Texas.
