The Senate voted today (13th) to reauthorize and expand the unconstitutional Violence Against Women Act (S.47). This bill vitiates due process, interjects the federal government into local law enforcement issues, violates the rights of citizens charged for domestic violence crimes on Indian reservations, promotes the homosexual agenda, and expands wasteful programs that have little success in combating domestic violence
One of the oldest legislative schemes of the left is to hide terrible statist laws behind mellifluous sounding names. There is no better example of this outrage than the Orwellian Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994. Democrats want to expand the role of this already ill-conceived bill in a way that will subvert our judicial system and shred the Bill of Rights. Their tactic is working, as most Republicans will blithely let it pass the Senate – and possibly even the House. After all, who would want to go on record as supporting violence against women?
Under our criminal justice system, states and local governments are vested with the police power to deal with crimes committed against its residents. Those powers are just as robust, whether the crime has been committed against a man, a woman, and everything in between (except for the unborn, thanks to Roe v. Wade).
In 1994, the Clinton Administration waded into the criminal justice system by imposing a federal prosecutorial and investigative regime to combat domestic violence. This new layer of government, housed in the Department of Justice, focused on redistributing judicial power to female victims and undermining equal protection, due process and the presumption of innocence for men – all to satisfy the cult of group victimhood. Moreover, the billions spent on sundry social programs have shown no success in reducing incidents of domestic violence, while precluding state and local governments from dealing with the problem as reflected by the reality in their areas of jurisdiction.
Like every social engineering statist law of the left, this one includes massive mission creep from the original intent:
- The last reauthorization expanded the programs and protections to the elderly and children. This one would expand “coverage” to men, homosexuals, transgendered individuals and prisoners. After all, in a liberal marriage you have to have some way of identifying the husband and the wife. Nonetheless, this will force shelters for battered women to service …well, some other individuals as well.
- It expands the definition of domestic violence to include causing “emotional distress” or using “unpleasant speech.”
- It expands the law’s reach to give tribal Indian authorities jurisdiction over non-Indians accused of domestic violence within the borders of an Indian reservation.
The entire concept of cirminal laws designed for specific groups or specific motivations, such as VAWA and hate crimes legislation, is an anathema to our constitutional beliefs. Under our constitutional framework, all suspects of any form of violence are afforded due process and a trial by jury. We (unlike liberals) believe that the violent offender, if found guilty, should be punished severely. Liberals can talk about a war on women, but it is they who have declared war on every law-abiding citizen with their moral relativist battle to water down our criminal justice system.
According to Right Side News, 23 Republicans Senators, who have no respect for federalism, due process, and equal protection under the law, voted for passage. They are Lamar Alexander, TN; Ayotte of NH; Burr of NC; Chambliss of GA; Coats of IN; Cochran of Mississippi; Susan Collins of Maine; Corker of TN; Crapo of Idaho; Fischer of NE; Flake of Arizona; Heller of NV; Hoeven of ND; Isakson of GA; Kirk of IL; John McCain of Arizona; Jerry Moran of KS; Murkowski of AK; Portman of OH; Shelby of Alabama; Toomey of PA; Vitter of LA; and Wicker of MS.
As ususal, the only problem Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who has been negotiating with Biden and other key players to ensure the legislation’s passage in the House, is the provision involving tribal courts.
