DeSantis Vetoed Divorce Bill That Would Have Presumed 50-50 Time-Sharing Of Children

By Elle Reynolds

You may have missed it in the tumultuous news cycle following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently vetoed S.B. 1796, an attempted reform of Florida’s divorce law that would have established a presumption that equally sharing time between both parents is in the best interest of children, in addition to eliminating lifetime alimony, setting limits for durational alimony payments based on the length of a marriage, and providing a phase-out option for divorcees making alimony payments when they retire.

In his veto letter, DeSantis explained that his reasoning for vetoing the bill was tied to its potential for retroactive application to existing divorce settlements, an application he said would violate the Florida Constitution. “If CS/CS/SB 1796 were to become law and be given retroactive effect as the Legislature intends, it would unconstitutionally impair vested rights under certain preexisting marital settlement agreements,” he wrote.

While many discussions of the bill centered on the changes to alimony law, several conservatives’ disappointment with the bill’s failure focused on the provision about sharing children equally, as divorce often leads to partially or fully excising fathers from children’s lives. It is well-established that regular father presence in children’s lives greatly reduces risks for all negative life outcomes, including violence, criminality, teen pregnancy and promiscuity, depression and despair, and poverty.