Migratory divorce mills moved from state to state as each tightened its laws.

Evidence

Another detour around strict divorce laws, for people with money and an itch to travel, was the migratory divorce. To attract this kind of tourist trade, a state needed easy laws and a short residence period. Indiana was one such state before the 1870s. Enemies of easy divorce fought these “divorce mills” as hard as they could. Bad publicity hurt the business in Indiana; in 1873, the legislature tightened the laws and shut this divorce mill down. South and North Dakota, too, had their day. Finally, in the twentieth century, Nevada became the place. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2892

Categorization

• CANDY: Nevada’s durable career as the national divorce mill from a state ‘quite impervious to moral arguments’ is a light, memorable fact.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s course thread on federalism and state competition for law (forum shopping appears in later Gilded Age chapters on corporate law).