North Carolina is a no-fault state and requires people who want to divorce to be separated for a year. Despite this, divorce rates are still climbing. The state has an alienation law on the books to try to keep people from cheating on their spouses. The law states that if one spouse has an adulterous relationship that breaks up the marriage, the other spouse could sue the person that was involved in the relationship that broke up the marriage.

In early February 2012, a woman listened to Wake Forest law students argue about the facts of her broken marriage. The ex-wife sued her ex-husband's girlfriend for alienation and alleged that the girlfriend's affair with her now ex-husband broke up the marriage.

The girlfriend is contesting the constitutionality of the law, and oral arguments were being presented at the North Carolina Court of Appeals. According to sources, the court is expected to rule within the next three months.

The girlfriend and ex-husband were not present at the hearing. According to a news article, the girlfriend filed pleadings that argue that the law "violates a fundamental right to privacy and free speech." The ex-wife's attorney disagrees and said that the fundamental right to privacy and free speech does not extend to adultery, because adultery is an injury to a specific person.

The girlfriend's attorney is basing his arguments on a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down another state's ban on sexual relations between same-sex couples. His argument states that the alienation of affection law violates the right to privacy that was the subject of that ruling.

The ex-wife's lawyer stated that North Carolina has a legitimate interest in "protecting the sanctity of marriage" and that the alienation of affection law does that. The girlfriend's attorney countered by saying the law doesn't work, because the state has the fifth-highest divorce rate nationally. He said people in North Carolina file 250 to 500 alienation of affection claims each year.

The ex-wife alleged in the lawsuit that she and her husband were friends with the girlfriend and her husband and entered business deals together. She only discovered the affair when she listened to a voice message for her husband in which the girlfriend stated that she missed him and loved him.

Source: Winston-Salem Journal, "N.C. Court of Appeals hears arguments on alienation of affection law at Wake Forest," Michael Hewlett, Feb. 8, 2012