It's a lot deeper than that. The state interest is in protecting individual choice and privacy, and, to borrow a phrase, the sanctity of marriage. It's one of the reasons you choose to get married -- so that other people can't fuck with your decisions as they might if you're "unattached." It's simply realistic and logical to assume that a married person with no written will in place chose not to write a will partly because the spouse is the controlling partner after death or vegetability arrive. Nader has signed his own political death notice with this amazing piece of pandering. Why does he now always enter the fray when he shouldn't, and stay quiet when he should be screaming (as in November of 2000)? What a crock!
Cockburn just wants to get stoned and chase girls...