ABSTRACT
Couples wishing to marry in Louisiana are required to choose between two marriage regimes: the traditional form of marriage characterized by unrestricted access to no-fault divorce or a covenant marriage designed to be harder both to enter and to exit. Hailed by some as the solution to America's divorce problem and denounced by others as a huge step backwards, covenant marriage will prove to be neither. The idea that things like marriage and divorce are not the proper business of governments was a surprisingly common theme in nearly all of our focus groups. "America's Divorce Problem" was written in 1999, soon after the project had started. It was clearly intended as an overview of the issues and hypotheses we are going to pursue, not a report of findings. Divorce is a symptom and lousy marriages are the cause.
