University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository
Abstract
This Note contends that the primary/secondary modification is unconstitutional because it ignores the husband\u27s equal protection rights while unlawfully stigmatizing women as dependent. Part I discusses how the growing independence of women has led courts to modify the common law doctrine. Part II develops the test that the Supreme Court would apply in judging the constitutionality of any modification of the doctrine. Part III applies this test to the primary/secondary modification and concludes that the modification is unconstitutional and, therefore, not a legitimate reformation of the common law necessaries doctrine
