The problem is that some courts will reform the agreements or declare them void against public policy depending on the fact situations.
Pre-Nups are an area where only the best will do -- hire a real matrimonial expert as your attorney to draw it, not your regular trusts and estates lawyer or general practitioner who would draw your will. If you move to a new state, consult an expert in the new state as to the enforceablity of your Pre-Nup. And you will need to take special precautions if you are moving to (or living in) California, Texas, Louisiana or the other 'community property' states in which all earnings and assets aquired by a couple during the marraige are considered jointly owned 50/50.
Married Freepers just don't understand how slim the pickings are these days...whether at the local pub or the local church, most young, single women in this nation are Oprahtized, confused, money grubbing dingbats (or worse) that any man with a brain wouldn't have anything to do with! I know because I've dodged the bullet twice now. I'd like to think that "she" is out there, but the more I date and the more women I meet these days, the more pessimistic I get. If you're in college, I imagine you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Okay, flame away, you happily married folks who haven't been in the dating game for years.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
If the court system doesn't care about the Constitution, what makes you think they will be interested in a pre-nup?
You'd think so. But family courts can declare null and void any pre-nup with impunity. Bottom line: if mamma wants it, mamma gets it.
Hope the soccer moms are happy. Now they can dream of being "taken" by Bill Clinton.
Pre-nups usually take care of assets acquired BEFORE marriage, as I understand it. And, then there is the emotional cost when these "liberated women" decide to leave for greener pastures.
Pre-nups can address some of this, if they're properly drafted and the court upholds them. However, it is very common for the court to decide that the pre-nup shouldn't be enforced for any number of reasons--for example, the man and the woman should each have their own lawyer rather than having one lawyer write the agreement for both of them.
Plus state laws vary, so what's valid in one state might not be in another. And some states limit the length of time that a pre-nup can be enforced. I believe, for example, that California law kills all pre-nups after seven years of marriage. Supposedly, that was one of the reasons Tom Cruise divorced Nicole Kidman--their seventh anniversary was approaching and he didn't want her to escape the limits of their pre-nup.
They're intended to, but it doesn't always work out that way. They are difficult to write well and must be revised when circumstances change within the marriage. When legally challenged, they can be quite expensive to defend, especially when agenda-driven judges make arbitrary rulings that must then be appealed -- or even when judges make proper judgments which are appealed anyway. Such battles can go on endlessly and at great expense. Therefore, many attorneys advise their clients to back off and relinquish a lot of what is rightfully theirs, even though the law and the facts are on their side.
Bottom line: A pre-nup will only keep honest people honest. If you want protection, marry someone who's not nearly as smart or Machiavellian as you, then get the goods on your prospective spouse and save them up for a legal "rainy day." That means investing in private investigators, steadily amassing your evidence, keeping track of the whereabouts and status of potential future witnesses, and always regarding your life partner as a potential legal adversary who may eventually have to be proven an unfit parent, faithless harridan, etc. Then, of course, the offspring of your union must be relentlessly conditioned to favor you in any testimony they may be called upon to make. This is a lot of work, carried out in secrecy and guaranteed to poison the relationship no matter what happens.
Under such cloak-and-dagger conditions, what would be the point of marrying at all?