Divorce is a judicially administered process that legally terminates a marriage and permits both to remarry. Before 1857 in Britain, freedom to remarry could be obtained only by an act of Parliament following a separation decree given by an ecclesiastical court on the basis of some wrong, such as adultery or abandonment, done by the defendant to the plaintiff. In the past, almost every state divorce law required the plaintiff to prove one of a number of recognized grounds for divorce, included adultery and desertion, even when both sp ....