Family Attorney
Federal Judge Upholds Law on Violence Against Women
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For the first time, a Federal District Court judge has upheld the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, a Federal law that made crimes against the opposite sex a violation of the victim’s civil rights. The judge, Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven, ruled in a case involving a Connecticut woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe. Her husband’s lawyers had challenged the constitutionality of the civil rights provision as “an open and sweeping invitation to the Federal Government to intervene almost at will in almost any area of anyone’s life.” But the judge, after reviewing the four-year legislative history of the statute and the conclusions that Congressional committees reached before the bill went to a vote, concluded that the Violence Against Women Act was “narrowly tailored and reasonably adopted to accomplish a constitutionally permitted end.” The woman suing under the 1994 law moved out of the couple’s home in Darien, Conn., last year and now lives in Riverside, Conn. She said her husband repeatedly threatened to kill her, beat her and threw household objects at her. Her suit said he forced her “to be a ’slave’ and perform all manual labor.” More : query.nytimes.com |
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