Again when merely being sad was not a permissible foundation for a divorce, Nevada grew to become a respite for {couples} determined for the possibility to maneuver on from their marriage. Whereas the necessities would appear burdensome right this moment – the couple must spend six weeks in Nevada to determine residency – they have been an enchancment from the just about unattainable to fulfill requirements that different states imposed. As phrase unfold about Nevada’s “quickie” course of (a relative time period), Reno grew to become the divorce capital of the world.

Nevada would ultimately develop into well-known for 2 different actions uniquely allowed right here: gaming and authorized intercourse work. Legal guidelines allowing quickie divorces, gaming and intercourse work weren’t the product of a degenerate streak in Nevada’s lawmakers and voters. It was, as an alternative, a recognition that folks ought to be free to make their very own decisions about what to do with their our bodies and their cash (particularly if these decisions supported native companies and the state’s treasury).

It ought to be no shock, then, that Nevada already protects probably the most controversial particular person freedom in right this moment’s politics: the suitable for a girl to decide on to finish her being pregnant. With the Supreme Courtroom reportedly poised to overturn Roe v. Wade – the landmark case that held that the U.S. Structure protects that proper – Nevada’s abortion statute is about to go from a unnecessary redundancy to a necessary safety.

It’s reassuring that there seems to be little urge for food on both aspect of the political aisle to attempt to overturn Nevada’s enshrinement of the suitable to decide on. Nevada appears very totally different right this moment from the tiny state that opened its doorways to divorcees within the first half of the twentieth Century. But the “dwell and let dwell” angle that drove its leaders and voters to guard particular person freedoms again then seems to nonetheless be alive and effectively.

That’s not sufficient, although. Twenty-two states have legal guidelines on the books that may ban abortion the second Roe is overturned, assuming the reporting on the Supreme Courtroom’s intentions is correct. Three of these states – Arizona, Idaho and Utah – border Nevada. Nevada will as soon as once more develop into a respite for these denied a elementary freedom of their residence state.

Nevada’s divorce legal guidelines have been necessary due to, not regardless of, how totally different they have been from different states’. By establishing the liberty to divorce right here, Nevada additionally prolonged it to any couple within the nation who might afford to return right here. It is going to be doing the identical if and when the Courtroom overturns Roe.

We must always welcome that duty by making certain that reproductive-health providers, together with abortion, stay protected and accessible for Nevada residents and guests alike. The tighter different states attempt to shut the door to particular person liberty by way of legal guidelines like Texas’s SB 8, the extra we should always attempt to open it.

That’s nothing new for Nevadans. It’s simply one other instance of our dedication to defending your proper to make the perfect decisions for your self based mostly by yourself judgment. Different states could discover that repugnant, identical to they thought our divorce legal guidelines a century in the past have been abhorrent. However we now have by no means compromised our rules based mostly on others’ cramped view of particular person freedoms. Let’s not begin now.

Kiel B. Eire is a deputy solicitor common within the Nevada Legal professional Basic’s Workplace. The opinions expressed listed here are solely his personal.