Divorce Law Reform

Archive Report

Prevailing Attitudes Toward Divorce

Divorce as Handicap in Presidential Politics

Despite the relatively high frequency of divorce among all classes of Americans, popular reaction to divorce of a prominent person indicates that legal dissolution of a marriage still meets a certain amount of disapproval. Shock and dismay are inevitably registered when a highly placed public figure like Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas is divorced.1 The frequent divorces of motion picture stars have long been deplored as indicative of moral weakness.

Divorce is a recognized handicap in politics. The fact that Adlai Stevenson had been divorced made his nomination for President on the Democratic ticket initially doubtful in 1952. Even though damage to Stevenson's political standing was lessened by the fact that he had not remarried, polls ...

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