Other Free Encyclopedias » Law Library - American Law and Legal Information » Notable Trials and Court Cases - 1973 to 1980

Orr v. Orr - Significance, Questions Never Asked, A Woman's Place Is . . ., A Divorce Decision Changes The Meaning Of Marriage

william appellant women alabama

Appellant

William Herbert Orr

Appellee

Lillian M. Orr

Appellant's Claim

That Alabama's alimony statutes were unconstitutional.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

John L. Capell III

Chief Lawyer for Appellee

W. F. Horsley

Justices for the Court

Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr. (writing for the Court), Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens, Potter Stewart, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

Warren E. Burger, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William H. Rehnquist

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

5 March 1979

Decision

Invalidated Alabama's statutes by which husbands, but not wives, might be required to pay alimony upon divorce.

Related Cases

  • Stanton v. Stanton, 421 U.S. 7 (1975).
  • Califano v. Webster, 430 U.S. 313 (1977).

Sources

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, Vol. 1. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 1998.

Further Readings

  • Goldstein, Leslie Friedman. The Constitutional Rights of Women, rev. ed. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
  • New York Times, March 1979, pp. 6, 7, 11.
  • O'Connor, Sandra Day. "Women and the Constitution: A Bicentennial Perspective." in Women, Politics and the Constitution. Naomi B. Lynn, ed. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press, 1990.

Additional Topics

Orr v. Orr - Significance

Rejected the premise that married women are necessarily dependent upon their husbands for financial support. Lillian and William Orr divorced in Alabama on 26 February 1974. The decree directed William to pay Lillian $1,240 per month in alimony. Soon he either fell behind or stopped paying altogether, and Lillian brought contempt proceedings against him in the Circuit Court of Lee County, Alabama,…

Orr v. Orr - Questions Never Asked

The arguments took place on 27 November 1978. Lillian could have objected to William's standing to sue. She could have claimed that his suit came too late; after all, he had not complained at the time of the divorce. And she could have argued that since they had both agreed and signed on the dotted line, they were bound by state contract law--so it did not matter whether the alimony laws were cons…

Orr v. Orr - A Woman's Place Is . . .

Turning to the merits of the case, Brennan stressed that recent Supreme Court decisions had established that "classifications by gender must serve important governmental objectives and must be substantially related to achievement of those objectives." He then examined what might have been three objectives of the alimony statutes in question. William had suggested that Alabama preferred wives to pl…

Orr v. Orr - A Divorce Decision Changes The Meaning Of Marriage

Orr v. Orr - Alimony

Alimony is a type of payment, secured by court order, whereby one member of a divorcing couple agrees to make regular payments toward the support of the other member. Usually the person making the payment is the former husband, and the person receiving payment is the former wife. This has been so even since the mass entrance of women into the workplace following the gains of the feminist movement …

Parham v. J. R. - Significance, Two Tragic Predicaments, The Due Process Argument, Minors And The Constitution [next] [back] Oregon v. Rideout - Significance, Does Marriage Mean Consent?, No Help From Friends . . ., Lose One, Win Some

User Comments

Your email address will be altered so spam harvesting bots can't read it easily.
Hide my email completely instead?

Cancel or

Vote down Vote up

almost 2 years ago

We need to start making U.S Constitutional Toilet paper, because that is all its good for. In American if it doesn't help an Illegal Alien or a Homosexual it doesn't count in America. The Supreme Court doesn't know !@#$ from peanut butter. How can one person be enslaved to another in the form of Lifetime Alimony and it not be against the U.S Constitution. 20 years of my life I gave to the U.S Air Force fighting for freedom now the very country I served has made me a Slave for life. Mr. Obama where are my rights!