perfidy

This is just weird.

The Missouri Supreme Court struck down the state's "alienation of affection" law, saying that "stealing" the love of a married person is an arcane legal doctrine. The court, in a 5-2 decision Tuesday, agreed with a woman accused of marital infidelity that alienation of affection is an antiquated cause that has no place in a modern legal system. The justices struck down the law and overturned a lower court's $75,000 judgment against her. The woman, Sivi Noellsch, was sued by Katherine Helsel for allegedly having an affair with Helsel's husband, David, who eventually filed for divorce. Helsel cited alienation of affection as the reason for her lawsuit. . . . .Alienation of affection is grounded in the outdated idea that married people have property interests in each other and its present-day interpretation does nothing to preserve marriages, Judge Richard Teitelman wrote for the majority. . . . "Most lawyers would have predicted this," Ken Jones, editor of Missouri Lawyers Weekly, said of the decision. "It really brings Missouri into the 21st century."

Nooo... It actually brings Missouri into the nineteenth century, when the laws of coverture were eroded by a rising class of property-owning women, but close enough. It's nice to see 500-year-old English common law can still exert a pull. The article also notes that a similar bill banning "alienation of affection" in North Carolina is not likely to pass into law. Heh. 

In other news, the love you take is still equal to the love you make. George Harrison: economist!