Supreme Court Wades Into State Divorce Laws

For the most part, federal courts, including the Supreme Court, generally stay out of marriage and divorce laws. There are obvious exceptions to this rule, such as the current debate surrounding same-sex marriage, on which SCOTUS will issue an opinion sometime in the summer of 2013. It appears that SCOTUS could also tackle a Virginia law that deals with named beneficiaries on federal life insurance policies. The issue concerns who gets a now-deceased man’s life insurance money – his current spouse, or his ex-wife, who he failed to remove as a beneficiary on his policy prior to his remarriage.