A Legal History of Intimate Deception

Abstract

This chapter places modern law in historical context. Over the course of the twentieth century, some legal remedies for intimate deception disappeared or became much less valuable. First, starting in 1935, a wave of state “anti-heart balm” laws abolished causes of action for seduction and breach of promise to marry that some women had been using to sue intimates who deceived them. Courts then interpreted anti-heart balm statutes expansively, relying on the laws to block a wide array of claims against deceptive intimates. Second, changing norms about race and gender left judges unwilling to grant redress for some types of intimate deception that they had once been willing to remediate. Third—and most significant in diminishing the volume of litigation—the advent and swift spread of no-fault divorce starting in 1970 meant that securing an annulment or fault-based divorce because of intimate deception became a much less valuable remedy.