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The good news is that EJF Director Bob Alvarez got out of jail
yesterday, three days early. The bad news is he was in there for
sending an email to his ex-wife trying to settle the divorce, plus
he committed the heinous crime of helping his two little boys send
her a mother's day card, which violated the restraining order. Of
course she got the restraining order so her boyfriend could move in
and to kick him out of his own home, an old story by now to the EJF
and its members. We hope to get his story published soon.
On Monday I copied EJF members on some correspondence with one
Judy Dildy regarding the conviction of a Maryland politician,
Ruthann Aron, to illustrate the level of (un)intelligence we are
constantly forced to deal with, not only those with can't understand
normal thinking syndrome, but politicians as well. I hope that
exchange helped illustrate the magnitude of the task we face because
many of you seem to think the pace of reform is much too slow.
Unfortunately, Ms. Dildy and her ilk currently hold sway among many
women and virtually all politicians.
However, our work is having an impact, and the following
article by noted conservative Phyllis Schalfly reflects that. Note
that the EJF is a 501(c)(3) public non-profit charity (that's why
your contributions are tax deductible) and, by law, cannot lobby.
Therefore, our approach is to forward our educational information
and research to groups like RADAR and True Equality Network, who can
lobby. Note that without the research there is nothing to lobby with
to prove that changes must be made. That is why the EJF needs your
financial support and volunteer efforts.
Chuck Corry
Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org
455 Bear Creek Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906-5820
Telephone: (719) 520-1089
EJF board members
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.
mailto:ccorry@ejfi.org
LaRae Musselman mailto:LaRaeMuss@aol.com
Robert Alvarez mailto:rb-alvarez@adelphia.net
EJF officers
Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A. - President
mailto:ccorry@ejfi.org
Sheryle Hutter - Vice President
mailto:Rockymtnmom2@aol.com
Paulette Vaughn - Secretary/Treasurer
mailto:pfvaughn@ejfi.org
_____________________________________________________________________________
Issues of interest to
the Equal Justice Foundation http://www.ejfi.org/ are:
Civilization
http://www.ejfi.org/Civilization/Civilization.htm
Courts and Civil Liberties http://www.ejfi.org/Courts/Courts.htm
Domestic Violence http://www.ejfi.org/DV/dv.htm
Domestic Violence Against Men in Colorado
http://www.dvmen.org/
Emerson
case http://www.ejfi.org/emerson.htm
Families and Marriage
http://www.ejfi.org/family/family.htm
Prohibitions and the War On Drugs http://www.ejfi.org/Prohibition/Prohibition.htm
Vote Fraud and Election Issues http://www.ejfi.org/Voting/Voting.htm
_____________________________________________________________________________
The good men may do separately is
small compared with what they may do collectively.
Benjamin Franklin
 
Laughing At Restraining Orders by Phyllis Schlafly
September 13, 2006
Borrowing the title of a famous George Gershwin ditty, "they all
laughed" when a Santa Fe, New Mexico family court judge granted a
temporary restraining order (TRO) against TV talk show host David
Letterman to protect a woman he had never met, never heard of, and
lived 2,000 miles away from. Colleen Nestler claimed that Letterman
had caused her "mental cruelty" and "sleep deprivation" for over a
decade by using code words and gestures during his network TV
broadcasts.
That ridiculous TRO was dismissed last December, but according to a
new report released this week by RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in
Domestic Abuse Reporting), the case was not a judicial anomaly but
"the logical culmination of years of ever-expanding definitions of
domestic violence." RADAR is a Maryland-based think tank that
specializes in exposing the excesses of the domestic violence
bureaucracy.
The New Mexico statute defines domestic violence as causing "severe
emotional distress." That definition was met when Ms. Nestler
claimed she suffered from exhaustion and had gone bankrupt because
of Letterman's actions.
The New Mexico statute appears to limit domestic violence to "any
incident by a household member," and Letterman, who lives in
Connecticut and works in New York, had never been in Ms. Nestler's
household. But New Mexico law defines household member to include "a
person with whom the petitioner has had a continuing personal
relationship," and Ms. Nestler's charge that Letterman's broadcast
of television messages for eleven years qualified as a "continuing"
relationship and thereby turned him into a "household member."
The family court judge who issued the TRO, Daniel Sanchez, may have
been predisposed to believe any allegation presented to him by a
complaining woman even though she had no evidence. His own biography
lists him as chairman of the Northern New Mexico Domestic Violence
Task Force.
RADAR reports that only five states define domestic violence in
terms of overt actions that can be objectively proven or refuted in
a court of law. The rest of the states have broadened their
definition to include fear, emotional distress, and psychological
feelings.
The use of the word "harassment" in domestic violence definitions is
borrowed from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's
definition, which is based on the "effect" of an action rather than
the action itself. In Oklahoma, a man can be charged with harassment
if he seriously "annoys" a woman.
The 1999 book by University of Massachusetts Professor Daphne Patai,
" Heterophobia:
Sexual Harassment and the Future of Feminism," powerfully
indicts what she labels the "Sexual Harassment Industry." The
feminists have created a judicial world in which accusation equals
guilt, and the distinction between severe offenses and trivial
annoyances is erased.
RADAR's report explains that the definition of domestic has also
been expanded. Originally, domestic meant a household member, but
now it means a person with whom the woman "has been involved in an
intimate relationship" (Colorado), persons who are in a "dating or
engagement relationship" (Rhode Island), or "any other person . . .
as determined by the court" (North Dakota).
How did it happen that state laws against domestic violence are
written so broadly as to produce such absurdities? Family court
judges issue two million TROs every year, half are routinely
extended, 85 percent are against men, and half do not include any
allegation of violence but rely on vague complaints made without
evidence.
Follow the money, both at the supply and the demand ends of the
economic trail. The supply of 1,500 new domestic violence laws
enacted by states from 1997 to 2005 is largely the handiwork of
targeted lobbying by feminists funded by the multi-million-dollar
federal boondoggle called the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
VAWA is blatantly gender discriminatory; as its title proclaims, it
is designed to address only complaints by women. VAWA provides
taxpayer funding to feminists to teach legislators, judges and
prosecutors the stereotypes that men are batterers and women are
victims.
The demand end of the economic chain is the fact that women know
(and their lawyers advise them) that making allegations of domestic
violence (even without proof or evidence) is the fastest and
cheapest way to win child custody plus generous financial support.
The financial incentives to lie or exaggerate are powerful.
Due process violations in the issuing of TROs include lack of
notice, no presumption of innocence, denial of poor defendants to
free counsel while women are given taxpayer-funded support, denial
of the right to take depositions, lack of evidentiary hearings,
improper standard of proof, no need to be found guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt, denial of the right to confront accusers, and
denial of trial by jury.
Assault and battery are already crimes in every state without any
need of VAWA. TROs empower activist family court judges to
criminalize a vast range of otherwise legal behavior (usually a
father's contact with his own children and entry into his own home)
which are crimes only for the recipient of the order, who can then
be arrested and jailed without trial for doing what no statute
prohibits and what anyone else may lawfully do.
Eagle Forum
PO Box 618
Alton, IL 62002
Phone: 618-462-5415
Fax: 618-462-8909
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