Utah’s SB 109 (2026) sponsored by Senator Todd Weiler eliminates the cause of action in “alienation of affection” cases. What this would is that the state government no longer recognizes marriage as a contract worthy of protection. At its core, marriage is a private contract and a religious rite. As a private contract, it is governed primarily by contract law. Since the earliest days of civilization, marital contracts were enforceable in courts of common law. By eliminating the private right of action to uphold marital agreements, SB 109 directly violates Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution and its prohibition against any state law that impairs the obligation of contracts.
In the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday morning on February 23rd, Senator Weiler claimed that marriage traditionally treated women as chattel, mere property of a husband. The state’s response to this is to treat both the husband and wife and their children as tax chattel, to be reassigned and divided through alimony, child support, custody arrangements and restraining orders, irrespective of the terms of the private contract of marriage, leaving aggrieved partners with no truly representative recourse for the breakage of marital vows.
The fact that this bill is continuing the Utah legislature’s momentum and precedent of erasing protections on marriage is not an endorsement of its character. In 2019 the Utah legislature passed HB 40, which removed criminal penalties for adultery and sodomy. At the same time, SB 43 decriminalized fornication. Senator Weiler is correct that in 1987, the State of Utah effectively became a no-fault divorce state by its inclusion of the “irreconcilable differences” condition as a supposedly legitimate prerequisite for divorce, nullifying the marital contract without due process.
Senator Weiler further stated that the scope of this statute extends not only to adulterous romantic partners, but also to anyone else who interferes in the marital relationship between husband and wife. This broad negation of the right to sue should increase our apprehension about categorically forbidding common law suits to protect marriage, because it would grant anybody absolute civil immunity for interfering destructively in a marriage, including therapists, religious leaders, friends, extended family members, educators, and so on.
Among the arguments leveraged by its sponsor to promote this bill is a claim that many divorce proceedings are frivolous, inefficient, expensive and burdensome. Divorce is certainly not free of human cost–but is that any excuse to avoid responsibility to hear cases? The Supreme Court decided in Cohens v. Virginia (1821) that it would be “treason against the Constitution” for a court to refuse jurisdiction it constitutionally possesses. Eliminating the private right of action to enforce a contract is abdicating jurisdiction in legitimate cases, and therefore fits the censure of the Supreme Court.
If it is alleged that a given case is frivolous or petty, the only body on Earth authorized to make that determination is the authorized finder of fact which, when requested by either party in civil cases above a modest threshold of value, is a jury. What could be more valuable than the marital relationship? SB 109 continues Utah’s trend of usurping power from juries and prevents the people from having free access to our courts, in open violation of Utah Constitution Article 1 Section 11.
If SB 109 passes, marriage contracts will become unenforceable in the state of Utah, eliminating much of the legal incentive for marriages to form in the first place. This bill places marriage on a lower footing than commercial contracts, which are still enforceable to a degree within the state. To state it bluntly, Utah no longer recognizes the private contract of marriage at all, but instead has redefined it as a tax status and a determinant in administrative proceedings to be exploited, controlled and monetized by the state.
You can watch the most recent committee hearing on SB 109 here:
https://www.utleg.gov/event-streaming/committee/20545
You can read the text and track the status of SB109 here:
https://le.utah.gov/~2026/bills/static/SB0109.html
I invite you to write your legislators immediately to protect marriage by urging opposition to this bill. You can contact them by scrolling to the bottom of the page at le.utah.gov.
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