Tom C. Clark

“ First, the Nevada divorce machinery has become so smooth that the husband-to-be often flies out to be present at the divorce, gets married in the church next door, and then accompanies his new wife to their 'new' domicile. Secondly, Nevada does a thriving business not only in divorcing out-of-staters but in marrying them as well; by requiring no waiting period before marriage, Nevada steals a march on nearby California and other States which attempt to force their often impatient residents to wait three days. ”

“ The Congress has the power to deal with the Islands, granting or withholding from them the powers of a State as it sees fit.
The only constitutional bugaboo is a judge-made one, domicile. [8] It creates strange anomalies. A married couple, both of whom desire a divorce, can obtain one in Nevada merely by having one spouse 'reside' there uninterruptedly for six weeks, and claim an intention to take up permanent residence there. ”

“ Then, 10 years later, long after the 'extraordinary rate of divorce' had occurred and the controversy over the Islands' law was brought to the attention of the Congress, it adopted, in 1954, a new Organic Act which re-enacted the identical 'subjects of local application' provision of the 1936 Act. ”

“ However, the Islands' divorce law has been neither vetoed nor annulled.
As the majority points out, 'the phrase (of local application) most liberally interpreted can be no broader than 'all rightful subjects of legislation. ”

“ Divorce, it seems to me, is such a subject.↑ Rather than interpreting this as a greater restriction, it would seem more reasonable to me to assume that the Congress, in repeating these words, meant that the legislature, within the specific limitations laid down in the Organic Act, was to exercise the same type of power as Congress could for the Territory, subject, of course, to the power of the Congress. This view is supported by the Government's argument in People of Puerto Rico v. ”

“ See H.R.Rep.No.461, 63d Cong., 2d Sess., 53 Cong.Rec. 7469. As is common in such enactments, a compromise is reached between those who want still greater independence and those who feel that the present degree of restriction is warranted. ”

“ Crownover, 1954, 58 N.M. 597, 274 P.2d 127.↑ An article on the Nevada divorce in a popular magazine shows that the people have not closed their minds even if this Court has. 'Nevada's first requirement for a divorce is what lawyers smugly refer to as a 'legal fiction': six weeks' steady residence in Nevada. * * * After this a mild sort of perjury is committed when the applicant mumbles in reply to the judge's mumble, that she does intend to continue residence in Nevada.' Holiday, February 1949, p. ”