The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), with Kayden's Law, Passes
Will it help? I don't think so.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), championed by the likes of Angelina Jolie, has been reauthorized.
Earlier in the week, I was on with James White on Critical Disclosure Radio talking about the reform law movement sweeping the nation regarding family court and I mentioned Kayden’s Law in the show.
The show was on Tuesday, and VAWA passed later in the week.
The passage of VAWA was met with glowing reviews from many quarters. Here is part of a statement from the White House.
This week, President Biden signed into law the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, bipartisan legislation passed by Congress as part of the Omnibus appropriations package.
One of the driving forces of President Biden’s career has been fighting back against abuses of power. That force led him to write and champion the groundbreaking Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as a U.S. Senator, landmark legislation that first passed in 1994. In the nearly three decades since, he has worked with Members of Congress from both parties to pass legislation to renew and strengthen VAWA three times: in 2000, 2005, and 2013. Each time, he worked to expand access to safety and support for all survivors and increase prevention efforts. Preventing and responding to gender-based violence wherever it occurs, and in all of its forms, has remained a cornerstone of the President’s career in public service—from VAWA reauthorization to a national campaign to combat campus sexual assault to reforms to address sexual assault and harassment in the military.
It’s no surprise that Joe Biden spearheaded the reauthorization of VAWA, since he sponsored it when it first became law as a senator in 1992.
The law was heralded by Jolie and others.
Kayden’s Law, which started in Pennsylvania, was placed inside this VAWA reauthorization.
I spoke with Jim about Kayden’s Law, which I only like parts of, and I’ve previously written about it.
The VAWA Reauthorization also includes Rep. Fitzpatrick’s Kayden's Law which takes the much-needed steps to improve our response to the well-documented, widespread failures of state courts to protect children in custody proceedings and increases funding under the STOP Grant program for States that put laws into place protecting child safety in any private State court proceeding affecting child care and custody. Kayden’s Law will strengthen our state courts’ abilities to recognize and adjudicate domestic violence and child abuse allegations based on valid, admissible evidence so that courts can enter orders that protect and minimize the risk of harm to children.
Kayden’s Law has an element of training and it increases money into the system, both are things I object to.
The problem is larger, in my opinion, as I have previously written about how wrongheaded VAWA is; VAWA creates an incentive to file false allegations and creates court services for those allegations.
Some critics say the real purpose of VAWA has always been to funnel money to left-wing feminists and their rapacious tax-eating activist groups. Experts at the Heritage Foundation see VAWA as an unwarranted federal intrusion into the rightful business of state and local governments that are constitutionally responsible for dealing with such crimes. Just as a city or state government is not the proper authority to deal with crimes like treason or spying against the United States, so the federal government is not the proper authority to deal with neighborhood speed limits or violence in the home.
“Using federal agencies to fund the routine operations of domestic violence programs that state and local governments could provide is a misuse of federal resources and a distraction from concerns that truly are the province of the federal government,” write David B. Muhlhausen and Christina Villegas of the Heritage Foundation.
VAWA springs from the bowels of radical feminism, a world where the inhabitants imagine that women are mercilessly exploited and enslaved by the so-called patriarchy. Women are always victims; men are always their oppressors.
“The VAWA initiated an extensive federal role in combating sex-based violence. Because proponents of the law argued that violence against women is a form of social control perpetuated by—according to their arguments—women’s weaker social, political, and financial status, the substance of the VAWA focused largely on redistributing power and resources to female victims. This philosophy of group victimhood undermines equal protection and the rule of law and has been detrimental to the protection of victims generally” (Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder #2673 on Family and Marriage, Legal Issues, March 29, 2012).
It has become law again, nonetheless.
I agree Mike, the law does not solve the major corrupt Family Court system. There is a ton more that needs to be done.