Repeal the Bradley Amendment by Phyllis Schlafly – Feb 27, 2006
February 27, 2006
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Posted by ANCPR
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Repeal the Bradley Amendment by Phyllis Schlafly – Feb 27, 2006
When our supposedly compassionate federal government pokes its nose into areas that, under our principle of federalism, should be none of its business, the result is often unintended consequences, gross injustices, and of course massive costs.
A prime example is the 1986 federal Bradley Amendment, which mandates that a child-support debt cannot be retroactively reduced or forgiven even if the debtor is unemployed, hospitalized, in prison, sent to war, dead, proved to not be the father, never allowed to see his children, or loses his job or suffers a pay cut.
The result of this incredibly rigid law is to impose a punishment that makes it impossible for any but the very rich to get out from under a Bradley debt. Thousands of fathers are sentenced to debtors’ prison (a medieval practice we thought abolished in the United States centuries ago), and thousands more have their drivers license confiscated (making it extraordinarily difficult to get a job).
Take the case of Larry Souter as reported recently in the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press. He was released after spending 13 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of second-degree murder.
He was then summoned to court to explain why he should not be convicted of contempt for nonpayment of his Bradley debt that kept rising during his years in prison: $23,000 in back support plus interest and penalties that raised the total to $38,082.25. The ex-wife’s attorney argues that Souter should pay because she “has endured the substantial burden of raising her two children without defendant’s contribution of child support.”
Because the children are now adults, this case proves that the Bradley debt has nothing to do with child support. It has to do with court-ordered transfer payments from which the state gets a cut.
This case is not an anomaly. Clarence Brandley spent 10 years in prison before he was exonerated and released in 1990, whereupon the state hit him with a bill for nearly $50,000 in child support debt that accumulated while in prison.
Many other cases prove that men cannot escape the Bradley debt even if DNA proves that they are not the father. The law even forbids bankruptcy to alleviate the Bradley debt.
Three years ago, a Maine court ruled that Geoffrey Fisher no longer had to pay child support for a child that wasn’t his. But Maine nevertheless demands that Fisher pay $11,450 in back child support and Maine took away his drivers license for failure to pay.
The Bradley debt makes no allowance for the growing problem of paternity fraud committed by mothers, estimated by some to be up to 30 percent of DNA-tested cases. Our compassionate government demands that a mother seeking welfare identify the father of her child and, like greedy lawyers, greedy women often target the man with the deepest pockets.
A few states have passed a recent law to end so-called child support if DNA proves a man is not the father, but that doesn’t get rid of the Bradley debt accrued before DNA results came in. We haven’t heard of any women being prosecuted for paternity fraud, and of course the man who was cheated doesn’t get any refund.
There is no excuse for Congress and state legislatures allowing these injustices to continue. Court-ordered child support should not be final until DNA proves paternity.
Feminist defenders of the Bradley Amendment claim that the Bradley debtor could have reduced his debt by going into court and challenging the amount of support when his income decreased. That argument is legalistic cynicism taken to the extreme.
Most Bradley debtors cannot afford a lawyer to advise them about and to defend their rights, yet they are up against government or government-paid lawyers; the system has built-in incentives to set the support as high as possible because collections bring bonuses to the state bureaucracy; and, according to the Los Angeles Times, roughly 70 percent of fathers in Los Angeles County are not present when the court (not biology) rules on paternity and irreducible monthly obligations are set in concrete.
President George W. Bush’s initiative to promote marriage is a non-starter so long as the Bradley Amendment exists. Who would marry a man with a Bradley debt hanging over his future?
Shakespeare famously wrote, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Since the author of the Bradley Amendment, former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., is still alive, he should tell his pals in the Senate to terminate his evil law before any more injustices take place.
Phyllis Schlafly is the President and Founder of the Eagle Forum.
Copyright © 2006 Copley News Service
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The ex-wife’s attorney argues that Souter should pay because she “has endured the substantial burden of raising her two children without defendant’s contribution of child support.â€
What an ass!
Like being locked up away from your children for 13 years isn’t bad enough, accused of murder and then released. She’s going to compare the burden of raising two kids for 13 years on her own, to spending 13 years in jail for something he didn’t commit? What a bitch!
I’d say send the 38k tab to the state of Michigan.
[“This case is not an anomaly. Clarence Brandley spent 10 years in prison before he was exonerated and released in 1990, whereupon the state hit him with a bill for nearly $50,000 in child support debt that accumulated while in prisonâ€]
[“There is no excuse for Congress and state legislatures allowing these injustices to continue. Court-ordered child support should not be final until DNA proves paternity.â€]
I like most of what Schlafly has to say, although she fails to point out that literally millions of men are victims of rampant discrimination and injustice of gargantuan proportion. “It’s not an anomalyâ€, may be the understatement of the century; it is standard practice to violate the constitutional rights of millions of men on a routine basis.
How does she figure that a man should be forced to pay support strictly based on DNA? When women are forced into motherhood without the option of abortion or adoption, then I think it’s fair to hold men to the same standard. It may be quite difficult for a feminist to wrap their head around that, nevertheless, that’s equal protection. Maybe Schalafly can explain why DNA should not be used to offer the biological dad 50/50 custody. Why does it always come back to $$$.
In my opinion, we need to get the government completely out of the so-called “child support†racket altogether. If actual child support is necessary, the court should not receive a nickel for making the order.
I think women should be held responsible, for claiming a child to be someone’s and not also presenting evidence that it might be someone else. Its a twisted setup and will change over time if we keep the fight … sheesh, notice the D next to the senator’s name that wrote the Bradley act …
The only way to stop the abuse is to abolish the law. Bradley is just one law that needs to be abolished. Child support laws need to be complete eliminated as well as alimony. They are just tools for the state to use to take control of producers. People who divorce shouldn’t use the law as a tool of revenge. Judges shouldn’t use the law as a way to legislate social policy. Alimony and child support have become just that.
Tinkering with the law, changing it or anything other than complete abolishment allows a judge to make social policy from the bench. The practice smacks of star chamber proceedings. To “fix” the law allows another road back to where we are. These laws must be abolished.
Try to remember what party Bill Bradley was affiliated with. It will get worse it will get a lot worse if and when Hillery Clinton takes office, I just don’t trust the Democratic Party. Let’s be aware that there is another election on the horizon and we need all of us there to register and vote something other than that party that is anti-family anti-fathers and anti-American.
Gerardo is right, this has everything to do with the party, what he and many others fail to see is that it doesn’t really matter who’s in office, or which party, as long as we remain only a two party system, everything is going only one direction, down the toilet…………:o)
What difference does it make whether you can afford a lawyer or not. The courts have become nothing more than revenue generaters for the states. They only make rulings in the best interest of the snouts and hooves in the public trough. As long as the feds throw our money at the states, and the more frauds that the states legitimize, things will only get worse. The feds should do the job they are meant to do and prosecute the crimes of the states. After 8 years of Ham Rod, electing Rod Ham will insure this corruption continues.
Ronald Reagan signed the Bradley Amendment and he used the term Dead beat dad on his campaign tours. On January 5, 2006 President Bush signed VAWA 2005 Reauthorization into law. The Republican party has done far more in the last 25 years to destroy fathers in this county than the Democrats. The only solution is to keep changing the party in power. Republicans and the Democrats main desire is to retain political power. Our only power is to take it away from them — Don’t vote for the party in power if they won’t support Fathers and men.
Great information!
I fear not, Osama Bin Laden and al Qaeda as I do the knock on the door by a family court enforcement officer. However, fear is a good thing when properly turned into action.
After six years of being held hostage by the terrorists in the federal who provide tax money to fund and operate the “domestic relations†programs in America; (Delaware County, Pennsylvania in my case), I have decided to retire from fighting for Veterans’ rights to become a soldier in the war to protect the constitutional rights of non-custodial parents and to protect the Parent-Child relationship.
I believe, national security of our country must be founded upon a strong Parent-Child relationship. Thus, knowing how the government has gravely injured my relationship with my children and reading of others similarly situated, I would like to involve myself with this noble effort.
I recently filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of Georgia predicated upon the unlawful levy of my Veterans’ pension. I pray this will provide some legal standing to advance the overall effort to reform the corrupt family law system and bring a small victory in the war of terror being conducted by cowardly agents, officials and representative within the domestic relations system in our nation who feed their families; from the pain and suffering they bestow upon ours via the criminal deprivation of due process and equal protection of non-custodial parents’ constitutional rights. Now, this is a war on terror I know to be real and will go down fighting if need be!
To all those who have fought this war long before me; I thank you!
Best wishes to all,
Jeff Trueman
Founder, VERPA Inc.
verpafounder@verpa.us
Once Again,
Phyllis, shout it from every family courthouse in America!! and from every church rooftop too for those of us FOOLS that dare to get married anymore.
When will the federal governemnt WAKE UP to the utter crimes it is heaping upon its people? Martin Luther King COME BACK we need you now like never before!!
My country has destroyed both me and my two daughters. And I was a good little Catholic boy who was taught not to lie and be good.
Are these drastic times yet?
Robert Gartner
Houston, Texas
Thanks Phyllis,
You can count on help from Michigan.
The Michigan Attorney General, Mike Cox, is putting people in jail left and right because of their inability to pay. There are NO adjustments in child support if you are laid off by Ford Motor Co or any other employer, you are in an accident and medically disabled, or you are activated in the service to Iraq. Seventy percent of the $8 billion in Michigan child support arrearage is owed by people making less then $20,000 per year. Increase the income level to $35,000 and this would account for 90% of the arrearage. There is no way this will ever get paid and there is no mechanism, according to the Bradley amendment, to write or foregive any of the debt. Meanwhile it continues to accumulate by $320,000,000 per year in interest charges.
Do you think they can pay when they are in jail ?
Do you think these parents have been allowed to see their children ? Absolutelty not.
DADS and MOMS of Michigan PAC
Detroit, Michigan
If anyone thinks this is a democratic party problem they are wrong. This is not a party problem, but a political issue. These women have worked very effectively as a political unit to demand this extortion from our elected officials. You can not mention the injustice of child support without being accused of being a dead beat.
Men have to be organized and indicate very strongly in all elections that you don’t vote for us, repeal onorus child support laws, do not repeal the Bradley Amendment, they you do not get our vote. No bull s_ _ _t.
Politicans could not care less about children, women, men. They care about votes and ONLY votes.
Franklin D. Vipperman
Las Vegas, NV. 89121
702-207-6356
http://www.FrankVip.com
TheDealMakers@aol.com
Re: The overwhelmingly corrupt, deceitful, lying, falsifying, fabricating police, prosecutors, courts, judges, attorneys, jail and prison personnel and guards,
parole and pardon boards, politicians, and the entire despicable cowardly news
media that keeps it all covered-up. Who are in truth and in fact, the underlying
Cesspool of this and all other countries. That daily, since the beginning of time,
have been robbing and depriving the people of their liberty and property for their
own personal monetary, political, and personal gains. And the same has being
going on in this country since the days of the Salem Witch Trials, whereat they
murdered 20 innocent people, because they would not make a deal by falsely
confessing to being witches: And absolutely nothing has changed since that time.
It is simply secreted from the public behind great walls of injustice, in the courts,
jails, and prisons, with the aid and assistance of the deplorable news media.
This writer, against all odds, caught them in their despicable, illegal, and
horrifying acts and actions, wrote it all down as it happened, and then
published it all. And named each and every one of them that were involved
and participated in the sad and shameful horrendous framing him for a murder
they know he did not commit, and railroading him through two different trials.
And tried to keep him in prison for the rest of his life because he would not
roll over and confess to a crime he was not guilty of. But; after secretly catching
the abominable parole board on a hidden tape recorder committing unimaginable
acts of lying, deception, perjury and blatant abuse of power and conspiracy, he transposed the secret tape recording into a transcript, and filed same into the
despicable district court, whereat it was all covered-up by devious immoral
corrupt judges. Which caused him an additional eight years in prison of
retaliation by the parole board. Until one day he had learned enough about
law after fifteen years imprisonment, to file a massive civil rights law suit in the
corrupt federal court, naming all of them that had been involved in the continual conspiracy. Including all of the despicable parole board members and hearing
officers, and they decided to throw him out of prison, for they knew he would
never give up or confess. He then took his case through the despicable state
and federal corrupt courts required, all the way up to the highest corrupt court
of all, the US Supreme Court. See his Writ Of Certiorari to the US Supreme
court at http://www.frankvip.com
This author, Franklin D. Vipperman, can be credited for taking down his
first alleged defense attorney, the abominable Harry E. Claiborne, who
had since became a federal judge. Vipperman caused him to be convicted
of committing a crime while setting on the federal bench, imprisoned, and
impeached by the US Senate. Thank you very much. He further caused
the despicable prosecutor that originally framed him for murder, Earl
Gripentrog, to be convicted and imprisoned. In addition, Vipperman
caused his deplorable trial judge Carl J. Christensen, who railroaded
Vipperman through two different trials to be thrown off the bench. And
recently, through his writings, caused his despicable alleged trial/appeal
attorney Jeffrey D. Soble, to be thrown off the bench in recent elections
after having became a district court judge.
Vipperman’s series of four books are quite probably the most powerful
ever written. The entire news media of Nevada have kept them covered-up
and hidden from the public. He attacked the entire despicable legal and
judicial systems of Nevada, which are the same everywhere in this country,
and for that matter, all over the world. It is the cancer of this world. And what
is as bad, if not worse, the entire news media in this country knows it all to be
true, yet keeps it all covered-up while acting in collusion and conspiracy with the
real powers that be, of both the state and federal governments. And every word
in Vipperman’s books are true, and he has indisputably backed up everything he
has written in them with court records, affidavits, trial and hearing transcripts,
police reports, written statements, trial testimonies, scene of the crime
photographs, and autopsy photographs, incorporated right into the pages of
the books. He caught the abominable bums at each and every step of his horrific
journey through the horrendous legal and judicial systems, only to find that the
higher courts simply aid and abet the lower courts in keeping it all covered-up
and out of the sight and mind of the brainwashed public of this country.
His four books, The Deal Makers , The Cesspool , Hell Hole , and
BRAINWASHED , are all available for free previews and purchases through http://www.authorhouse.com through their Book Store . And are further available
through Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon, and almost all book stores and
computer book sights everywhere through their ISBN (International Sales
Book Number). So please, for the sake of yourselves and your family and
loved ones, read his books, learn from them, and post, forward, and spread this information everywhere possible. For if we don’t do something about this now, we will all end up in a prison, with only ourselves to blame….
Interesting………..I’m puzzled.
Donny, my husband, divorced his first wife, Dianne, in May 1993. She got primary custody… & $400 a month child support. He had been paying child support since he left her in 1992, as receipts show, although not court ordered to. Well, because of her heavy drinking, he quickly realized the 2 boys were better off in his care, & through the court systems, received sole custody in 1994. (Proceeding were actually started to ammend custody in Sept. ’03). When my hubby left, he took his personal items ONLY. Court documents support this. He left the cars, house, $$$ in bank… Literally started over after nearly 20 years of marriage. Well, he got sole custody, & court said they had no jurisdiction regarding child support. By this time, I was in the picture & we didn’t give it a second thought. We just wanted the boys safe, & didn’t worry about support. It was a struggle, to be sure. In ’96, we had to get foodstamps, temporarily. When we applied, we found out Dianne was receiving medicaid, foodstamps, & welfare $$$ in a different county (same state.) Of course, that set off alarms, & “Human Services” came after my HUSBAND for back child support. He had to prove the children CONTINOUSLY had been living with him/us… H.S. finally implemented a chld support order against Dianne for $192 a month (TWO CHILDREN!) & medical. She never ever paid it, nor was she ever held accountable for her fraudulent welfare grant. Heck, by choice, she only sporadically saw the children. In 2003, our entire family moved to the east coast from Colorado. By now, both boys were grown. Dianne was arrested in Co. for her 4th DUI (she’s NEVER spent any time in prison for these offenses). In locking her up, they found out about nearly $20,000 in back support she owed… So they threw that charge on her, plus contempt. Because of the DUI charge, she got herself a court appointed attorney… who handled the contempt/child support issues. Dianne was let out of jail due to overcrowding within a week… & filed a motion to wipe out arrears because Donny owed her support from ’93 to ’96. We lived on the East Coast, Donny appeared at several hearings by phone, we couldn’t afford a lawyer… it’s insane. Because of the Bradley Ammendment, she just might get away with it! Mind you, Fremont County Department of Social Services in Canon City Colorado, never took a real interest in this case, & never really pursued this because my hubby is MALE. Dianne had no home base, her boyfriend is a trucker & they travel far & wide. Contempt charges, by the way, were dismissed because Dianne claimed she THOUGHT Donny owed HER support (right ~ he had CUSTODY)… Now, Dianne is settled, works under the table as a maid. The hotel where she lives employs her, she has hidden all her assets, & according to our boys… she’s making excellent money. But she didn’t bother contributing ONE DIME to the childrens well being. Much less medical. Thanks to the Bradley ammendment, she may never be held accoutable for her actions… Please publish my name. Molly HAKES.
PS. My “website” is actually a blog of what my son Jaob went through last year when his son was kidnapped. Another male with custody…. but apparently no rights.
Hey! Thanks for the great post, very informative.