Gitmo at Home: Domestic Violence Courts in America

Nolan Chart has published an article of mine on the crazy domestic violence (DV) restraining order systems in this country:

http://www.nolanchart.com/article5319.html

I believe that reform of state DV systems and reform of the family courts in general should be a high priority for Ron Paul candidates and activists at the state level, for these reasons:

1) The problems in family court are tremendous (see Stephen Baskerville's book Taken in Custody), and affect a ton of people. Lives are ruined every day in the family courts.

2) Reforming the family courts is right up libertarian's alley. The arguments against the abuses that go on in the family courts are libertarian arguments.

3) Victims of the family court are likely to become libertarian if they see libertarians standing up for them. Most people harmed by the family court are shocked when it happens to them, believing they have rights that the government honors. They're eyes are opened or, if they are already sceptical of the notion of government beneficence, opened further. Only a few politicians have taken up the issue of family court reform, so the issue presents are real opportunity for libertarians to stand out at the state level (like the push for the dismantling of the Fed does at the national level).

Here's an excerpt from Gitmo at Home:

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence is a very significant problem in America. This month would be a good time to address the attempt of state governments to combat domestic violence through the issuance of temporary and permanent restraining orders.

In the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center and our nation's response to terrorism domestically and abroad, there has been a flurry of negative reaction in the press to the subjecting of suspected terrorists to trial by military tribunal without the constitutional protections afforded other criminals. As John F. Kearney, III, put it in the March 24, 2003 issue of the New Jersey Lawyer, "All of us want as much done by government as possible to protect us from more Sept. 11 attacks or worse. None of us wants to be nuked, poisoned or fall victim to a suicide bomber. But none of us should want, either, to give away our hard-won liberties."

While the legitimacy of using military tribunals to try accused terrorists is getting well-deserved attention, the media has been largely silent on a related topic, the legitimacy of trying defendants accused of a crime, domestic violence, in brief restraining order hearings in the family court, where defendants are denied virtually all of the due process protections afforded defendants in the criminal court. These systems have been in effect much longer than the anti-terrorism measures, and affect many more people, yet one hears very little about them.