Federal Law

In 2000, the United States Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Violence Against Women Act (the more formal title of which is the Civil Rights Remedies for Gender-Motivated Violence Act) in the case of United States v. Morrison. The act had allowed a person to sue for damages if another person “commits a crime of violence motivated by gender.”

The Supreme Court, although sympathetic to issues of domestic violence, held that domestic violence did not involve a sufficient connection to economic activity to be justified under the Commerce Clauseof the U.S. Constitution. It also held that since the conduct the act sought to prevent was private conduct rather than conduct of the state government, the act was not a proper exercise of power under the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

Although the Court held that Congress did not have the power to create a private remedy for domestic violence, victims of domestic violence can still use state laws seek to prevent further violence and collect damages for violence that already has been done.