# Amicus Curiae Brief — Anderson v. Green

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URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/brief%3Amicro_IA40385013_0603%3A15

## Record

- **Collection:** Supreme Court brief
- **Document type:** Amicus Curiae Brief
- **Published:** January 1, 1995
- **Citation:** 513 U.S. 557

## Text

OCTOBER TERM, 1994

>

ELOISE ANDERSON, individually and in her official capacity
as Director, California Department of Social Services,
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, and
RUSSELL S. GOULD, Director, California Department of

Finance, os
Petitioners,

—V—

DESHAWN GREEN, DEBBY VENTURELLA, and DIANA P.
BERTOLLT, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly

situated, Respondents.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES
COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE
NOW LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND

(Additional Amici Listed on Inside Cover)
IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS

MARTHA F. DAVIS
Counsel of Record
SUSAN J. KRAHAM
DEBORAH A. ELLIS
NOW LEGAL DEFENSE AND
EDUCATION FUND
99 Hudson Street, 12th Floor
New York, New York 10013
(212) 925-6635

Attorneys for Amici Curiae

ete. & cadet - tbe de tees 1 eae

AMERICAN MEDICAL WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION
AYUDA, INC.

CALIFORNIA WOMEN LAWYERS
EQUAL RIGHTS ADVOCATES
FAMILY VIOLENCE PROJECT OF THE LEGAL
ACTION CENTER FOR THE HOMELESS
NATIONAL BATTERED WOMEN’S LAW PROJECT
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF
NEGRO WOMEN, INC.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
NATIONAL WOMEN’S HEALTH NETWORK
NATIONAL WOMEN’S LAW CENTER
NORTHWEST WOMEN’S LAW CENTER
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
OF AMERICA, INC.

WOMEN LAWYERS ASSOCIATION
OF LOS ANGELES
WOMEN’S ECONOMIC AGENDA PROJECT
WOMEN’S LAW CENTER, INC.
WOMEN’S LAW PROJECT
WOMEN’S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
YWCA OF THE U.S.A.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Beem GP AUTRIUEED cc ccc ccc ere ccees lil

INTEREST OF AMICICURIAE ..............
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ................
DI Rhee eeWeebbecdocececcececc cs

I. BECAUSE THE CALIFORNIA STATUTE
CREATES A DURATIONAL RESIDENCY
REQUIREMENT THAT RESULTS IN
UNEQUAL TREATMENT OF RESIDENTS
BASED SOLELY ON THE LENGTH OF TIME
THEY HAVE LIVED IN CALIFORNIA, THE
STATUTE MUST BE SUBJECT TO STRICT
DUPUEPS ee E eb oéeeesesececcccc.

Il. BATTERED WOMEN WILL BE HARMED BY
THE DURATIONAL RESIDENCY
REQUIREMENT BECAUSE THEY
FREQUENTLY MUST FLEE ACROSS STATE
LINES TO PROTECT THEMSELVES AND
Debs ececesececsecccces

A. Because Separation Is The Most Dangerous
Time For Many Battered Women, Victims Of
Domestic Violence Often Must Cross State
DO PEE ccc ccccececcccccs

B. Having Made The Decision To Escape,
Victims of Domestic Violence Often Must
Seek Shelter And Support From Family
Members Who Live In Other States.......

Ill. THE CALIFORNIA DURATIONAL RESIDENCY
REQUIREMENT DETERS BATTERED
WOMEN’S EXERCISE OF THEIR RIGHT TO
WEEE: £0608 es 00665 OC Rb ERG OSE ° 15

A. The Residency Requirement Will Burden The
Right To Travel Of Battered Women Whose
Escape From Abuse Will Increase Their
Economic Need

B. Battered Women Often Are Economically
Dependent On Their Abusers And Thus Have
Substantial Economic Needs That Will Not Be
Met By Reduced AFDC Benefits

IV. A REDUCTION IN AFDC BENEFITS BASED
ON RESIDENCY WILL PENALIZE TRAVEL
AND PERPETUATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
BECAUSE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE IS
A SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN BATTERED
WOMEN’S ABILITY TO ESCAPE AND
REMAIN SEPARATE FROM THEIR
Th ceccdsebewheweek beeucéce 22

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX I! Statements of Interest of Amici Curiae

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

FEDERAL CASES

Attorney General of New York v. Soto Lopez,

) FS | 6 eee eee 4,5, 15
Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420 (1980) ........ 10
Green v. Anderson, 811 F. Supp. 516 (E.D. Cal. 1993),
aff'd, 26 F.3d 95 (9th Cir. 1994) ............ 3,5
Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415

ee ED as dg os 64 a 56 WN 06 6 6 0 14, 15, 25

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania
v. Casey, 505 U.S. __, 112 S. Ct. 2791 (1992) . 7, 20, 23

Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969) .. 15, 16, 24

United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966) ....... 4
United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570 (1968) ..... 16
Zobel v. Williams, 457 U.S. 55 (1982) ........... 5
STATE CASES

Pennsylvania v. Stonehouse, 521 Pa. 41, 555

DP cccuaeeeeeveseseevateesess ll
Kansas v. Hundley, 236 Kan. 461, 693 P.2d 475

a oes. Pek uae ake eeeees eee ee 10
Kansas v. Stewart, 243 Kan. 639, 763 P.2d 572

DE bc edevceceesdeseeeseeesiesever 14

Woolfolk v. Virginia, Va. , 447 S.E.2¢
I oad oe tn ée oie déuccccéa 13
STATUTES AND REGULATIONS
ea he 12
42 U.S.C. § 602(a(26).... 2... eee 17
| RR RP HR tl acne gh 13

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement
Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796 12, 13

California Welfare & Institutions Code
EIS ae ae nl ean ee 1, 2, 19, 24

45 C.F.R. §§ 232.12, -.42 (1992)
HEARIN Although this brief addresses the particular effects of the durational
residency requirement on battered women and their children, it is
important to note at the outset that the statute’s effect is borne almost
entirely by women. In 1992, 89.4% of AFDC recipient families
reported were headed by single mothers. Committee On Ways and
Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 103d Cong., 2d Sess.,

Overview of Entitlement Programs 400 (Comm. Print 1994) (“1994
Greenbook").
* Green v. Anderson, 811 F. Supp. 516 (E.D. Cal. 1993), aff'd, 26

F.3d 95 (9th Cir. 1994).

4

longer term California resident with the same size family
would have been eligible for $624.° Id. at 72.

The right to interstate travel “has long been recognized
as a basic right under the Constitution.” United States v.
Guest, 383 U.S. 745, 757-58 (1966). A_ residency
requirement is subject to strict scrutiny if it deters, or is
intended to deter interstate migration, or if it will penalize
the exercise of the right to travel.

Attomey General of
New York v. Soto Lopez, 476 U.S. 898, 903 (1986)

(plurality opinion), 920-21 (O’Connor, J. dissenting).°

As amici will discuss, by calculating AFDC benefit
amounts based on whether and from where a needy family
has recently emigrated, the California statute will deter
victims of domestic violence from exercising their right to
travel from one state to another. Interstate mobility and
economic supports are critical to a battered woman’s
successful escape from domestic violence. Nevertheless,
the durational residency requirement denies both to victims
of domestic violence. The resulting deterrent effect of the

* Plaintiff Diana Bertollt would have received $280 per month for
herself and her child instead of $540, J.A. 81, and Plaintiff, Debby
Venturella would have received $341 instead of $624 for herself and
two children. Id. at 76. Since Plaintiffs applied for AFDC in
California, the grant for a family of three was reduced from $624 to
$607. 1994 Greenbook at 368. The maximum allowable payments for
eligible AFDC recipients in every state except Alaska, Connecticut,
Hawaii, Vermont and some regions of New York are lower than in
California. 1994 Greenbook at 368-69.

* As Plaintiffs state, although presence of any one of the three
categories — deterrent purpose, an actual deterrent or penalty — will
trigger strict scrutiny, all three are raised by the California durational
residency requirement. Amici adopt tue argument of Plaintiffs and
address in this brief the latter two categories as they affect battered
women.

5

statute can only be justified by a compelling government
interest.

According to the standards governing analysis of
durational residency requirements established by this Court,
the relevant question is not whether former residents of a
state are being treated the same as those who still live in
that state but, rather, whether all current residents of the
same state are treated equitably. Thus, it is irrelevant that
under the statute, residents of California who emigrated
from Louisiana within the twelve months preceding their
receipt of AFDC would receive the same benefit amount as
current residents of Louisiana.’ The right to travel
“protects residents of a State from being disadvantaged, or
from being treated differently, simply because of the timing
of their migration, from other similarly situated residents."
Soto-Lopez, 476 U.S. at 905 (1986); see also Zobel v.
Williams, 457 U.S. 55, 60 n.6 (1982). Residents of
California who otherwise are eligible for the AFDC support
in the amount necessary for basic subsistence in California,
are penalized by the durational residency requirement which
operates to deprive them of the basic necessities of life by
permitting support only at the level necessary in, for
example, as in Plaintiffs’ cases, Louisiana, Colorado or
Oklahoma.

For Plaintiffs, as for all battered women fleeing
domestic violence, the deprivation is particularly onerous.
Adequate financial assistance often is the key factor that

’ Furthermore, as the District Court noted “the measure cannot fairly be
said to provide the same payment as new residents could have received
in the state of their prior residence since the cost of living, particularly
housing, varies so substantially from state to state and generally is much
higher in California than elsewhere.” Green v. Anderson, 811 F. Supp.
at 521.

6

enables battered women and their children to remain
separated from their abusers. Denial of subsistence level
benefits may force battered women to return to dangerous,
and often life-threatening situations.

fl. BATTERED WOMEN WILL BE HARMED BY
THE DURATIONAL RESIDENCY
REQUIREMENT BECAUSE THEY FREQUENTLY
MUST FLEE ACROSS STATE LINES TO
PROTECT THEMSELVES AND THEIR
CHILDREN

A. Because Separation Is The Most Dangerous
Time For Many Battered Women, Victims Of
Domestic Violence Often Must Cross State Lines
To Reach Safety

Between three and four million women each year are
battered by husbands, partners and boyfriends. Domestic

Violence: Not Just A Family Matter: Hearing Before the
Sul Cri | Criminal Justi f the H
Committee on the Judiciary, 103rd Cong., 2nd Sess. (June
~~ 1994) (statement of Senator Joseph Biden Jr.); Joan

tza, Women Battering: High Costs and the State of the
Law, 28 Clearinghouse Rev. 383, 386 (1994) [hereinafter
State _of the Law]; Patricia Horn, Beating Back the
Revolution, Dollars and Sense, Dec. 1992 at 12. Half of
these women are beaten severely and in 30 percent of the
domestic violence incidents reported, assailants use
weapons. Joan Zorza, supra, State of the Law, at 386. In
the United States, 31.5 percent of women killed are
murdered by their husbands. Id. at 387. Batterers exert
control over their partners’ lives by force, threat of force,
and emotional and economic abuse.

7

This Court previously has acknowledged the danger
and magnitude of the domestic violence epidemic. Planned
Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania _v. Casey, 505
U.S. _, 112 S. Ct. 2791, 2826-30 (1992). In Casey, this
Court invalidated, under an undue burden standard, a
spousal notification provision of an abortion statute,
concluding that

there are millions of women in this country who are the
victims of regular physical and psychological abuse at
the hands of their husbands. Should these women
become pregnant, they may have very good reasons for
not wishing to inform their husbands of their decision
to obtain an abortion. . . . Many may have a
reasonable fear that notifying their husbands will
provoke further instances of child abuse .. . . Many
may fear devastating forms of psychological abuse from
their husbands, including verbal harassment, threats of
future violence, the destruction of possessions, physical
confinement to the home, the withdrawal of financial

support... .
Id. at__, 112 S. Ct. at 2828-29.

As the Court noted in Casey, there is a positive
correlation between spousal abuse and child abuse. ld. at
_, 112 S. Ct. at 2828. Like Plaintiffs, many women
attempt to flee domestic violence not only to protect
themselves, but to protect their children. Children of
battered women are twice as likely to be abused and their
fathers are three times more likely to be their abuser.
Mildred Pagelow, Justice for Victims of Spouse Abuse in
Divorce and Child Custody Cases, 8 Violence and Victims
69, 77 (1993) [hereinafter Justice for Victims]; Violence
Against Women: Domestic Violence Hearing Before the

8

Senate Judiciary Committee, 10st Cong., 2nd Sess. 7
(Dec. 11, 1990) (statement of Susan Kelly-Dreiss,

Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence).

Between 50 and 90 percent of battered women attempt
to escape their abusive environment. Patricia Horn, supra,
at 21. However, their efforts are hampered, and often
frustrated, by the economic deprivation that frequently
accompanies domestic violence, see discussion infra at 15-
22, and by the volatile response of the abuser to the
victim's departure. Abusers do not lightly relinquish
control over their former partners. Typically, an abuser
searches desperately for his partner once she has fled. For
many abused women, the only way to stop violence that
continues after separation is to move a great distance away
from the abuser. Plaintiff DeShawn Green felt that it
would not be safe for her and her children to live in the
same state as her batterer. J.A. 72. Plaintiff Diana
Bertollt moved to California from Colorado because she
was afraid for her own safety and the safety of her son.
J.A. 78. Testifying before the House Subcommittee on
Crime and Criminal Justice, one victim of domestic
violence described her flight:

Sixteen years ago I packed everything that would fit
into a single suitcase, left behind the few possessions |
owned, took my two month old baby girl and ran for
my life. . . . As I got on the airplane in Dallas that
day, | knew that I would never go back and that |
could now begin to create a future for my daughter and
myself, a future of freedom and safety.

Before the Sul = | Criminal Just :
the House Committee on the Judiciary, 103rd Cong., 2nd
Sess. (June 30, 1994) (statement of Karla DiGirolamo).

9

Leaving an abusive relationship does not always put an
end to the violence. Department of Justice statistics show
that divorced and separated women report being battered 14
times as often as women still living with their partners.
Caroline Harlow, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Female Victims of
Violent Crime 5 (1991). In fact, battering often increases
after separation, as batterers escalate their violence in an
attempt to coerce the battered woman into reconciliation or
to retaliate for her departure. Mildred Pagelow, supra,
Justice For Victims, at 72; Margo Wilson and Martin Daly,

8 Violence and

Spousal Homicide Risk and Estrangement,
Victims 3 (1993); see Martha R. Mahoney, —"-

Battered Women: Redefining the Issue of Separation, 90

Mich. L. Rev. 1, 5-6 (1991) ("At the moment of
separation...the batterer’s quest for control often becomes
most acutely violent and potentially lethal"). Testifying
before Congress, one victim described her batterer’s
response when she tried to escape with her two small
children: “You lied to me when you said our wedding
vows and said until death do we part. That’s the way its
going to be." Oversight Hearing on the Issue of Violence
Against Women Before the Subcommittee on Crime and

Criminal Justice of the House Committee on the Judiciary,
102d Cong., 2nd Sess. 7 (Feb. 6, 1992) (statement of Jane
Doe on Behalf of Victim Services). Battered women who
leave their partners face an elevated homicide risk. Margo
Wilson and Martin Daly, supra, at 7. The danger of
separation assault is particularily acute during the first few
months of separation. Id. at 10; see Martha Mahoney,
Supra, at 6 (naming the escalating violence “separation
assault" and identifying it as a common thread uniting
“suits on enforcement of temporary restraining orders, the
cases with dead women. . . and the cases with dead men.").

The criminal law is replete with cases describing
serious bodily injury and murder committed by an abuser in

10

response to a battered woman's flight. See Pagelow, supra,
Justice For Victims, at 72. For example, in Godfrey v.
Georgia, 446 U.S. 420 (1980), the petitioner was convicted
of murdering his wife soon after she had left the marital
home and filed for divorce. The Court noted that Godfrey
had abused his wife during the marriage, id. at 424 n.3,
and described the victim’s departure as following a
particularly violent episode. Id. at 424.

Increased violence resulting from a battered woman's
escape also has been evident in cases in which battered
women have killed their abusers. In Kansas v. Hundley,
236 Kan. 461, 693 P.2d 475 (1985), the Kansas Supreme
Court described the events preceding the killing:

This was all of [decedent's] violence [defendant] could
take. She moved to the Jayhawk Junior Motel. As in
typical wife-beating cases, her moving did not eliminate
the problem. [Decedent] then started a pattern of
constant harassment. He would call her night and day
to threaten her life and those of her family. She was
so frightened she started carrying a gun.

On . . . the day of the shooting, [defendant] had
seen [decedent] early in the day, at which time [he]
told [her] he was going to come over and kill her.
That night she heard a thumping on her motel door
while she was in the bathroom. By the time [she] got
out of the bathroom [he] had broken the door lock and
entered the room. His entry was followed by violence.
[She] was hit and choked and life was again threatened.

Id. at__, 693 P.2d at 476. Similarly, in a case involving
the use of battered woman syndrome evidence and
demonstrating the severity of separation assault against
battered women, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

1]

detailed the history of violence between the defendant and
decedent:

[SJhe agreed to meet with him to make it clear that she
did not want to see him any more. When [defendant]
asked [decedent] to take her home from this meeting,
[he] drove instead to a shopping center where he
dragged her out of the car and then repeatedly
attempted to run over her with the car. Failing to run
over [her], [he] finally jumped out of the car and
punched [her], breaking her nose and rendering her
semi-conscious.

Pennsylvania _v. Stonehouse, 521 Pa. 41, 555 A.2d 772,
775 (1989).

Even escape to a shelter for victims of domestic
violence is not always successful. Many batterers will stalk
their victims. Using personal contacts or creative
resources, they are able to track down the addresses of
local shelters. Kathleen Ferraro and John Johnson, The
New Underground Railroad, 6 Studies in Symbolic
Interaction 377, 380-83 (1985) (describing case histories in
which batterers got information from friends on the police
force; used visitation with children to locate their victims;
or begged for information from sympathetic taxi drivers).

State legislators have begun to recognize that many
women are relentlessly terrorized by men with whom they
previously had a relationship and that existing laws and
orders of protection cannot stop the abuse. California was
the first state to adopt an “anti-stalking” law in an attempt
to deal with the problem.* Forty-eight states and the

Laws, Nat’! L.J., May 11, 1992, at 3, 27 (California enacted law in

12

District of Columbia now have anti-stalking laws.’ Despite
the widespread enactment of anti-stalking laws, batterers
continue their persistent terrorism of women who have left
them.'® Judicial opinions upholding convictions under the
stalking laws reveal the menacing nature of batterers
continuing abuse:

Following appellant’s separation from [the victim]
in 1987, he engaged in a pattern of conduct that
frequently involved following her and maintaining
surveillance on her residence. In the summer of 1992,
after [the victim] began dating Bill Carter, appellant's
surveillance activities increased dramatically. These
activities included driving up and down the dead-end
Street where [the victim] lived, parking within sight of
the residence, and watching the house for extended
periods of time. . . In July 1992, [the victim] was
“alarmed” after discovering appellant had followed her
to an out-of-town wedding... .

1990 after five women were murdered in succession by former
husbands or boyfriends. ).

* M. Katherine Boychuk, Comment,

Are Stalking Laws
Unconstitutionally Vague or Overbroad?, 88 Nw. U. L. Rev. 769 n.!

(1994).

© Recognizing the extent of the problem, Congress recently amended
28 U.S.C. § 534 by adding a provision granting courts access to
national cnmunal information databases for use in domestic violence or
stalking cases. Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of
1994, Pub. L. No. 103-322 §40601, 108 Stat. 1796, 1950-51. That
provision also authorized federal and state agencies to enter into
databases information regarding arrests, convictions and warrants for
stalking and domestic violence. Id.

13

On September 19, 1992, at 7:00 a.m. Mr. Carter
awoke to a telephone call from a male caller who
stated, "If you don’t stop seeing her, I’m going to
shoot both your asses.” . . .

The evidence established that in response to
appeliant’s threat and course of conduct, [the victim
carried tear gas in her purse, had motion detector lights
installed on the outside of her home, and “slept with a
hamener" beside her bed. She watched for appellant
everywhere she went and on one occasion, she obtained
a police escort... .

ia, _ Va. _, 447 S.E.2d 530, 531-32
(Ct. App. 1994).

In an effort to provide escape from the most persistent
abuser, battered women’s shelters and service providers
have banded together, often informally, in what has been
described as a modem incarnation of the "underground
railroad." Kathleen Ferraro and John Johnson, supra, at
378. The underground railroad enables women to flee to
other cities and states and begin a violence-free life for
themselves and their children."' For one victim of
domestic violence, “what she needed was an escape route to
a city where neither she nor [her batterer] had other
contacts or resources. This is precisely what the
underground railroad provided. She was whisked off to a
city about 2,000 miles away...." Id. at 38).

'' In recognition of battered women’s need for secrecy as they flee
under these circumstances, the United States Postal Service has been
ordered to “promulgate regulations to secure the confidentiality of
domestic violence shelters and abused person's addresses." 42 U.S.C.
§ 13951, added by Pub. L. No. 103-322 § 40281 (1994).

14

B. Having Made The Decision To Escape, Victims
of Domestic Violence Often Must Seek Shelter
And Support From Family Members Who Live
In Other States

Having made the decision to flee, women in
abusive relationships often must move to another state to
receive crucial emotional support and transitional shelter
from families and friends while they try to put their lives
back in order. See Lee H. Bowker, Beating Wife Beating
11, 75, 136 (1983); Edward W. Gondolf and Ellen R.
Fisher, Battered Women as Survivors: An Alternative to
Treating Learned Helplessness 28 (1988).

Plaintiffs are good examples of this pattern. DeShawn
Green left her abusive partner in Louisiana to return to her
childhood home, Sacramento, California, hoping to take
shelter with her mother. J.A. 71. Debby Venturella left
her increasingly abusive husband in Oklahoma and moved
with her child to California to stay with her parents and
grandfather. J.A. 75. Diana Bertollt and her son moved in
with her uncle in California because she feared that the
partner she left behind in Colorado was a danger to them.
J.A. 80. Many women in Plaintiffs’ position, with no place
else to turn, seek help from relatives in distant locations.
See, e.g., Kansas v. Stewart, 243 Kan. 639, 763 P.2d 572
(1988) (battered wife fled from Kansas to her sister’s home
in Oklahoma).

Considering a challenge to a one-year county residency
requirement for free medical care, this Court in Memonial

Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250 (1974), noted
the deterrent effect of the statute on one segment of the

population:

de Oe RRR HF owe fe ee re my

SE EINE Ae 8 ey COE TR ey!

15

A person afflicted with a serious respiratory ailment,
particularly an indigent whose efforts to provide a
living for his family have been inhibited by his
incapacitating illness, might well think of migrating to
the clean dry air of Arizona, where relief from his
disease could also bring relief from unemployment and
poverty. Bu: he may hesitate if he knows that he must
make the move without the possibility of falling back
on the State for medical care... .

Id. at 257. Battered women, even more than the ailing
indigents in Maricopa, must emigrate to find relief from the
violence in their homes. By denying newly arrived
residents the means to acquire basic necessities, California’s
durational residency requirement effectively limits the
escape routes available to families that need to flee across
State lines. As a result, the statute deters the exercise of
the right to migrate between states and must be subject to
Strict scrutiny. See, e.g., Soto-Lopez, 476 U.S. at 903
(plurality opinion), 920-21 (O’Connor, J. dissenting).

Il. THE CALIFORNIA DURATIONAL
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT DETERS
BATTERED WOMEN’S’ EXERCISE OF
THEIR RIGHT TO TRAVEL

A. The Residency Requirement Will Burden The
Right To Travel Of Battered Women Whose
Escape From Abuse Will Increase Their
Economic Need

Because the economic condition of battered women’s
lives is desperate, the durational residency requirement will
have a devastating effect on their ability to flee domestic

violence. In Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 622

16

(1969), this Court invalidated a one-year waiting period for
the receipt of welfare benefits reasoning that the statutes in
question were

. well suited to discourage the influx of poor
families in need of assistance. An indigent who desires
to migrate, resettle, find a new job, and start a new life
will doubtless hesitate if he knows that he must risk
making the move without the possibility of falling back
on state welfare assistance during his first year of
residence, when his need may be most acute.

Id. at 629. To preserve their safety and the safety of their
children, Plaintiffs in this case, as well as many other
battered women and their children, crossed state lines in
order to begin a new life. As amici discuss infra at 16-19,
many battered women’s financial needs are most acute
when they first separate from their batterers. The denial of
adequate financial assistance at this critical time will "chill
the assertion of [the right to travel] by penalizing those who
choose to exercise [it]." Id. at 631 (citing United States v.
Jackson, 390 U.S. 570, 581 (1968)).

While remaining in abusive relationships, battered
women often are subject to complete control and financial
isolation by their batterers. Battered women’s economic
vulnerability is exacerbated by their need to flee persistent
and escalating violence. Women frequently must leave
quickly and secretly without time to pack. Women of all
income levels often must leave everything behind. Barbara
Davidson and Pamela Jenkins, Class Diversity in Shelter
Life, 1989 Social Work 491, 492. As a result, many
women must escape and hide from a batterer with very few
resources, often consisting only of money they have
managed to hide or scrape together over long periods of
time. See, e.g., Lewis Okun, Women Abuse: Facts

17

Replacing Myths 69 (1986); Del Martin, Battered Wives 84
(1976) (citing study where a woman managed to save $1.75
over a two-year period. Adding that to the five dollars her
grandmother sent her for Christmas, she had just enough to
buy bus tickets).

Women who flee usually take their children with them
and thus have additional financial responsibilities. Barbara
Davidson and Pamela Jenkins, supra, at 492. Because
battered women may seek to protect themselves and their
children by trading financial support or distribution of
assets for more protective custody or limitations on the
batterers’ visitation with their children, they often are
unable to rely on sources of support available to other
single parents. Mildred Pagelow, supra, Justice For
Victims, at 74; The Family Violence Project, Family
Violence: Improving Court Practices [Recommendations
from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judge’s Family Violence Project] (1990). In some
instances, abused women are, legitimately, too afraid to
seek child support or maintenance because they do not want
any contact with their abuser. Patricia Horn, supra, at 22.
Where women do pursue child support or divorce litigation,
batterers often will retaliate by waging financial warfare. A
batterer may, for example, empty the joint bank accounts
and prolong divorce or custody proceedings to increase the
victim’s legal costs. See id. at 21.

When less drastic measures have not stopped the abuse
and harassment, some women have not only fled, but “gone
underground,” cutting off all contact with their former lives
and adopting new names. See, e.g., Kathleen Ferraro and
John Johnson, supra, at 378. As a result, they encounter
other obstacles to financial stability. They cannot seek
child support because it would alert the man stalking them
to their new location. Cf. 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(26) (1991);

18

45 C.F.R. §§ 232.12, -.42 (1992) (AFDC recipients are
released from obligation to cooperate with state’s child
support collection efforts if doing so would threaten
physical or emotional harm). They also cannot try to
recover possessions left behind in the initial escape and may
face difficulty obtaining a new job because they cannot risk
giving old employers as references for fear that either the
potential employers would learn their true identities or their
old employers would discover their new locations.

Women’s escape from violence in their own homes is
dependent, to a great extent, on available financial
resources. See discussion infra at 22-25. Without adequate
income support, women who leave battering relationships
face a high risk of becoming homeless. Battered women
with or without children comprise a significant portion of

the homeless population. Joan Zorza, Woman Battering: A
Major Cause of Homelessness, 25 Clearinghouse Rev. 421,
421 (1991) [hereinafter Homelessness]; Donna Mascari,
Comment, Homeless Families: Do They Have a Right to
Integrity?, 35 UCLA L. Rev. 159, 163 (1987). According
to one recent survey of women housed in a shelter for
victims of domestic violence, when asked to specify what
resources they needed, 41 percent of the women seeking to
end abusive relationships described housing as a necessary
resource. Cris M. Sullivan, et al., After the Crisis: A
WwW

Shelter, 7 Violence and Victims 267, 272 (1992). Without
access to the support necessary to survive at a minimal
level, a victim of domestic violence and her children may
be forced to choose between abuse or homelessness and
indigency. For instance, Plaintiffs themselves were unable
to find affordable housing in California with the reduced
grant amount. J.A. 72, 76, 81.

19

Section 11450.03 of the California Welfare and
Institutions Code would only further diminish the economic
resources available to victims of domestic violence.’
Faced with poverty and homelessness, battered women,
particularly those with children often will

balance the possible harm to the children through
inadequate housing with the harm from maintaining the
relationship. Unless the children are threatened
directly or indirectly, the woman may well choose for

‘2 Battered women with children face significant financial obstacles as a
result of their abusers’ conduct towards them. However, these women
and their families also must confront the economic hurdles facing all
female-headed households. In California, fewer than half of all children —
with court-ordered child support receive money from their noncustodial
parent. Grim Lives of State’s Kids, San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 25,
1994 at B-1 (reporting recent study by Children Now.) By some
estimates, absent parents owe $18 billion in uncollected child support.
Patricia Horn, supra, at 22. This has a substantial negative impact on
women who head 78 percent of all single-parent households and 88
percent of = 9 sn families. ee suteenes Bureau,

20, "32 (1993). le tho thied quarter of 1994, cine aieceaded full-
time earned only 77.9 percent of the median earnings for men. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary
Workers: Third Quarter 1994 (Oct. 26, 1994). Fewer than half of all
employed women are full-time year-round workers. Population
Reference Bureau, Inc., supra, at 85. This is significant because
families headed by part time workers are four times more likely to be
poor. General Accounting Office, Report to the Chairman,
Subcommittee on Employment and Housing, Committee on Government

——- House of Ls meremsamtse: Sateen. & Se lnemenat

(1991). When Ge guide wotine > dase daaibeonal, the family i is
eight times as likely to be poor. Id. For working poor women, they
face the additional cost of child care which often amounts to 23 percent
of their income. 1994 Greenbook at 541. For nonpoor families, child
care costs represent 9 percent of their income. Id.

20

them rather than herself. In a very real way, she is
choosing between known and unknown dangers... .

Martha Mahoney, supra, at 23. Because the California
Statute poses a danger of homelessne$s and extreme
deprivation to a battered woman and their children, it will
deter the flight of battered women from abusive home
environments.

B. Battered Women Often Are Economically
Dependent On Their Abusers And Thus Have
Substantial Economic Needs That Will Not Be
Met By Reduced AFDC Benefits

Because many domestic violence victims are
economically dependent on the men who abuse them, few
victims have the resources necessary to begin a new life for
themselves and their children. Batterers commonly isolate
battered women from financial resources. See Casey, 505
U.S. __, 112 S. Ct. at 2828 (citing Lenore Walker, The
Battered Woman Syndrome 28 (1984)). For example,
many battered women do not have ready access to cash,
checking accounts, or charge accounts. Lisa G. Lerman, A
Model State Act: Remedies for Domestic Abuse, 21 Harv.
J. on Legis. 61, 90 (1984). One study showed that 27
percent of battered women had no access to cash, 34
percent had no access to a checking account, 51 percent had
no access to charge accounts, and 22 percent had no access
to a car. Lenore Walker, supra, at 28. Batterers
economically isolate women of all income levels. Lisa
Freedman, Wife Assault in No Safe Place 47 (Connie
Guberman and Margie Wolfe, eds. 1985); Patricia Horn,
supra, at 21. This economic isolation may itself increase
the violence. According to experts on domestic violence,
the more economically dependent a woman is on her
batterer, the more likely she is to be at risk for serious

21

injury. Michael J. Strube and Linda S. Barbour, The

Decisi I \busive Relationship: _E :

Dependence and Psychological Commitment, 1983 J. of
Marriage and the Fam. 785, 786.

Some batterers who are distrustful of any outside
contact their partners may have, forbid their partners from
working outside the home. See Mildred D. Pagelow,
Women Battering: Victims and Their Experiences 150
(1981); Patricia Horn, supra, at 12. In one study, one third
of the women surveyed reported that their batterers had
prohibited them from working. Melame Shepard and Ellen
Pence, The Effect of Battering on the Employment Status of
Women, 3 Affilia 55 (1988). Plaintiff Diana Bertollt
illustrates a similar pattern. She was forced to discontinue
her school attendance when her abusive partner confined
her to her home. J.A. 80.

The situation of battered women who work outside the
home is little better than those who do not. They often are
forced to relinquish their earnings to batterers who insist
upon handling all the money in the relationship. Lenore
Walker, Abused Women and Survivor Therapy 62 (1994);
see also — Waits, geo

the Solutions. 60 Wash. L. Rev. 267, 280-81 & n.60
(1985). Furthermore, battered women’s efforts to become
financially independent also are punished. See Richard
Gelles and C.P. Cornell, Intimate Violence in Families 75
(1985) (finding that wives who have better jobs than their
husbands face an increased risk of assault). Women who
are battered also may be harassed by their partners at work.
Melanie Shepard and Ellen Pence, supra, at 57-59; Lisa
Freedman, supra, at 52. These women can lose their jobs
because of the abusers’ disruptive behavior. Many victims
frequently are absent from work because of injury inflicted

22

by their batterers. One study found that 96 percent of the
women who were working while involved in an abusive
relationship experienced problems at work. Joan Zorza,
supra, State of the Law at 384. More than half of their
abusers harassed them over the telephone. Id, Over half
of the women reported missing work, being reprimanded,
or having trouble with job performance. Id, at 385. It is
not surprising that the rate of unemployment among
_ battered women is higher than that of other women. See
Michael J. Strube and Linda S. Barbour, supra, at 786.

The plight of battered women illustrates the burden the
California statute places on the right to travel. A variety of
factors make abused women at least temporarily indigent.
If they are to be provided with benefits well below the
existing California grant levels, they may be forced to
remain in an abusive relationship rather than exposing their
children to the dangers of poverty. See discussion supra at
19-20. Alternatively, they may find themselves homeless
or they may be driven back to their abusive partners, in
either case seriously endangering themselves and their
children.

IV. A REDUCTION IN AFDC BENEFITS BASED ON
RESIDENCY WILL PENALIZE TRAVEL AND
PERPETUATE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BECAUSE
ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE IS A
SIGNIFICANT FACTOR IN BATTERED
WOMEN’S ABILITY TO ESCAPE AND REMAIN
SEPARATE FROM THEIR ABUSERS

It is widely recognized that economic independence
plays a major factor in battered women’s decisions to leave
a life of domestic violence behind. As described above,
many women remain trapped in abusive relationships
because they lack resources to leave, and fear the poverty

23

they may face. Battered women who leave even severely
violent relationships often return to their batterers for
economic reasons. Casey, 50S U.S. _, 112 S. Ct. at
2828. Without adequate financial assistance, battered
women are forced to accept violence as an inevitable fact of
life.

Economic dependence on battering men serves to keep
battered women locked into violent relationships. “The fear
of poverty or a greatly lowered standard of living is a
major reason why women stay in abusive situations .
Ginny NiCarthy, Getting Free: A Handbook for Women in
Abusive Relationships 11 (1986). Women are more likely
to stay in an abusive relationship when the economy is bad
and unemployment is high because it will be more difficult
for them to find work and support themselves and their
children. Patricia Horn, supra, at 13. In addition, services
targeted to battered women provide only emergency help,
insufficient to allow women to support their families and
move toward economic independence. See id. at 21-22
(most battered women’s shelters allow only eight week
stay). As a result, many battered women are forced to
allow “economic needs [to] take precedence over [their]
physical and emotional need to be free from abuse.” Ida
M. Johnson, Economic, Situational, and Psychologica]
Correlates of the Decision-Making Process of Battered
Women, 73 Fam. in Soc’y: J. of Contemp. Human Serv.
168, 175 (1992). See Michael J. Strube and Linda S.
Barbour, Factors Related to the Decision to Leave an
Abusive Relationship, 46 J. of Marriage and the Fam. 837,
837 (1984).

Adequate income supports do make a difference to
women who have left batterers. The most likely predictor
of whether a battered woman will permanently separate
from her abuser is whether she has the economic resources

24

to survive without him. Edward W. Gondolf and Ellen R.
Fisher, supra, at 95-96; see also Ida M. Johnson, supra, at
174-75; Lewis Okun, supra, at 55 (citing studies that find
women commonly return because they lack economic

resources); B.E. Aguire, Why Do They Return? Abused
Wives in Shelters, 30 Social Work 350, 350 (1985).

Battered women must have a “sound bridge out of
poverty,” Edward W. Gondolf and Ellen R. Fisher, supra,
at 94, in order to afford to live safely and separately from
their abusive partners. Battered women who have risked
and survived separation assault nevertheless will be
penalized by the durational residency requirement. The
inadequacy of the financial assistance provided to new
residents may force them to return to violent situations.
Alternatively, the denial of adequate assistance may result
in homelessness. As noted earlier, none of the Plaintiffs
were able to find housing affordable with the reduced
AFDC grant. See discussion supra at 18; see also Joan
Zorza, supra, Homelessness at 422 (31 percent of abused
women in New York City shelters returned to their
batterers primarily because they could not locate long-terin
housing).

The denial of adequate financial assistance to families
by operation of the California durational residency
requirement heightens the financial obstacles facing battered
women. The threat of homelessness and poverty resulting
from a lack of available resources will deter battered
women’s exercise of the right to travel. See Shapiro, 394
U.S. at 629. Furthermore, as a result of Section 11450.03
of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, women
who have crossed state lines to escape domestic violence
and have established residency in California will be denied
the financial assistance deemed minimally adequate for
survival in California. Because differential AFDC benefits

25

for newly-arrived residents would deprive battered women
of the resources and alternatives necessary to escape abuse,
their exercise of the right to travel is penalized. See
Maricopa, 415 U.S. at 258-59.

CONCLUSION

For the reasons stated, the judgment of the Ninth
Circuit should be affirmed.

Respectfully submitted,

Martha F. Davis

Counsel of Record
Susan J. Kraham
Deborah A. Ellis
NOW Legal Defense and
Education Fund
99 Hudson Street, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10013
(212) 925-6635

APPENDIX

> \
fi, Tos

APPENDIX I
STATEMENTS OF INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE

American Medical Women’s Association, Inc.
("AMWA"), a nonprofit organization of 13,000 women
physicians and medical students, has a particular concern
with all issues that affect the health of women. AMWA
recognizes that domestic battering is the single greatest
cause of injury to women and that it frequently goes
undiagnosed and untreated, leaving the victim exposed to
repeated violence. The Association deplores this
victimization and abuse, and believes that a significant
result of the application of the California durational
residency requirement is to inhibit women’s pursuit of
safety.

AYUDA, Inc. is a non-profit legal services agency,
founded in 1971, which offers legal representation and

social service assistance to indigent Spanish-speaking and

foreign born residents of the District of Columbia. Since
1985, Ayuda has represented 98% of the Spanish-speaking
battered women who turn to the D.C. courts for protection,
offering assistance to thousands of immigrant and refugee
battered women and children who reside in the D.C.
metropolitan area. In addition, Ayuda played a central role
in securing passage of the Violence Against Women Act
and worked particularly on provisions that assist battered
immigrant women and children and interstate enforcement
of protection orders. Ayuda understands that to survive
domestic violence, battered women often must cross state
lines in their search for shelter and safety from continued
abuse. Without the ability to survive economically, few
battered women succeed in their attempts to leave their
batterers. We are concerned about the impact this case will
have on battered women’s ability to flee violence.

2

California Women Lawyers ("CWL") is one of the
largest women’s bar associations in the nation, representing
over 30,000 women lawyers. CWL’s mission is to promote
the advancement of women and the achievement of gender
parity. CWL has involved itself in both the legislative and
judicial processes for the betterment of the legal climate for
women in California. Specifically, CWL is committed to
the fair and equal treatment of persons of all genders and
financial means.

Now in its twenty-first year, Equal Rights Advocates
("ERA") is one of the country’s oldest women’s law
centers. ERA is dedicated to empowerment of women
through the establishment of their economic, social, and
political equality. Beginning in 1974 as a teaching law firm
specializing in issues of sex-based discrimination, ERA has
evolved into a legal organization with a multifaceted
approach to addressing women’s issues including litigation,
advice and counseling, public education and public policy
initiatives. ERA’s mission includes promoting economic
independence of women, including those women who need
to rely on government support during times of transition.

The Legal Action Center for the Homeless is a ten-
year-old organization that has worked to assist the homeless
and other disenfranchised New Yorkers through direct
assistance and impact litigation. The Family Violence
Project of the Legal Action Center for the Homeless was
initiated in October 1993 by staff with 15 years of
experience working with and for battered women and their
children. Current work of the Family Violence Project
includes system reform and advocacy with the New York
City Police Department, the Child Welfare Administration
and the Health and Hospitals Corporation, as well as direct
assistance to battered women and their children.

3

The National Battered Women’s Law Project, a
program of the National Center on Women and Family
Law, acts as legal backup to Legal Services programs and
battered women’s programs and provides pro bono
information in all fifty states. The Project serves as an
information clearinghouse for advocates, attorneys and
policymakers on legal issues facing battered women;
produces manuals, handbooks, public education materials
and resource packets on these legal issues; analyzes federal
and state issues which affect battered women; assists
advocates, policymakers and attorneys on issues faced by
battered women; and reports on legal and legislative
developments with respect to battered women’s issues in
The Women’s Advocate, the bi-monthly newsletter of the
National Center on Women and Family Law. The Project
represents the interests of battered women, who are
frequently reduced to poverty and homelessness on account
of the physical, emotional, sexual and economic abuse
inflicted upon them by their abusive partners; many of these
women are forced to flee to other states in order to protect
themselves and their children from further abuse.

The National Council of Negro Women, Inc.,
established in 1935, is a voluntary non-profit membership
organization committed to the advancement of educational,
social, and economic opportunities for African American
women. Through our thirty-four National African
American Women’s affiliate organizations, and 250
community based sections in forty-two states, NCNW has
an outreach to four million women. NCNW supports the
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund amicus brief in
Anderson _v. Green, which argues that California’s
imposition of a durational residency requirement upon
recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children will
harm women crossing state lines in order to escape abusive
relationships. AS a women’s organization committed to

4

promoting wellness among African American women,
NCNW opposes any legal barriers that would infringe on a
woman’s ability to sustain herself and her children after
fleeing an abusive relationship.

The National Organization for Women was founded
in 1966 as a political advocacy and action organization
working to end all forms of discrimination against women.
The organization currently has 250,000 members located
across the United States and over 600 chapters which
comprise our activist base. We have worked since our
inception for the rights of low-income women, as we
oppose any welfare measures which have the effect of
harming poor women and their children. The statute in
question in Anderson y. Green discriminates against women
fleeing domestic violence by denying them the same welfare
benefits as California residents.

The National Women’s Health Network is a non-
profit membership group which advocates for better federal
health policies for women. The Network works to expand
access to health care services for poor women, older
women, women of color, lesbians, rural women and
disabled women. The Network is supported by 16,000
individual and 300 organizational members representing
over 500,000 women and men. The Network believes that
the decision in this case will have implications on women’s
access to government sponsored health care.

The National Women’s Law Center ("Center") is a
non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to
advance and protect women’s legal rights. The Center
focuses on major policy areas of importance to women,
including employment, education, family support, income
security, reproductive rights and health -- with special
attention given to the concerns of low-income women. In

5

its work on income security issues, the Center has fought to
ensure that the statutory and constitutional rights of
applicants for, and recipients of, Aid to Families with
Dependent Children benefits are advanced and protected.
The Center is and will continue to be involved in all efforts
to ensure that the AFDC system adequately addresses the
needs and concerns of poor women and their children.

The Northwest Women’s Law Center is a non-profit
public interest legal organization based in Seattle,
Washington, that works to advance the legal rights of
women in the Pacific Northwest through litigation,
education, legislative advocacy and a free legal information
and referral phone service. Since its founding in 1978, one
of the Law Center’s priorities has been to protect and
advance the rights of women and children who are victims
of domestic violence. The Law Center has a long history
of litigation and participation as amicus curiae in cases
around the country on behalf of victims of domestic
violence who seek to flee violent relationships and establish
economic independence.

NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund ("NOW
LDEF") is a leading national non-profit civil rights
organization that performs a broad range of legal and
educational services in support of women’s efforts to
eliminate sex-based discrimination and secure equal rights.
NOW LDEF was founded in 1970 by leaders of the
National Organization for Women. Eliminating domestic
violence and improving financial supports for poor women
are major concerns of NOW LDEF.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.
(PPFA) is the oldest and largest voluntary organization
dedicated to the provision of reproductive health care and
advocacy of reproductive rights. Incorporated in 1922 as a

6

New York not-for-profit corporation, PPFA consists of a
national office and 164 autonomous affiliate members in 49
states who operate over 900 clinics nationwide, providing
medical and educational services to over 4,000,000 people.
Planned Parenthood believes that welfare reform, and all
social welfare policies, must respect individual dignity,
encourage self-empowerment, and ensure the fundamental
right to reproductive choice.

Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles is a
local bar association with more than 1,000 members.
Founded in 1919, WLALA includes in its statement of
purpose furthering the understanding of and support for the
legal rights of all women and promoting equality and equal
opportunity for all people. WLALA has long fought for the
rights of battered women. We oppose the statute at issue in
this case because it undermines the efforts of battered
women who move to our state for the support of family and
friends by denying them the full AFDC benefits in
California.

The Women’s Economic Agenda Project ("WEAP")
was founded eleven years ago in Oakland, CA to advocate
for economic rights of low-income women and their
families throughout the state. Since its foundation, WEAP
has trained thousands of women in leadership development,
offered seminars on economic rights and advocated for poor
women at all levels of California society. WEAP wishes to
join the amicus brief about the effects of two-tiered welfare
system on battered women, since WEAP encounters this
population among its constituency every day and are only
too well aware of the inequities of this system. WEAP
represents the perspective of over four-million poor women
and their families throughout California.

a

7

The Women’s Law Center, Inc. is an advocacy
Organization whose membership of 400 consists of
attorneys, judges, and other concerned persons in the State
of Maryland. In existence since 1971, the goal of the
Women’s Law Center is to promote the legal rights of
women through litigation, legislation and education. The
Women’s Law Center has a long history of involvement
with domestic violence, including the creation with other
groups of a domestic violence legal clinic, training of
attorneys to handle domestic violence cases on a pro bono
basis, and operation of a Family Law Hotline. The
Women’s Law Center believes the issues raised in the
Anderson v. Green case, as they affect victims of domestic
violence, are critical to the legal rights of women.

The Women’s Law Project is a Philadelphia-based
non-profit public interest legal center dedicated to
improving the legal and economic status of women and
their families through litigation, public policy development,
public education and individual counseling. Since its
founding in 1974, the Law Project has engaged in extensive
activities challenging gender discrimination in employment,
education, insurance, and in family matters relating to
custody, support, domestic violence and divorce. Family
law, in particular, has been a major focus of both the
telephone counseling service, which handles approximately
4000 inquiries a year relating to some aspect of family law,
and the Law Project's litigation efforts, which include both
original litigation and participation as amicus curiae in
numerous family law cases.

Founded in 1971, the Women’s Legal Defense Fund
(“WLDF") is a national advocacy organization located in
Washington, D.C., that works at the federal and state levels
to promote policies that help women achieve equal
opportunity, quality health care, and economic and physical

8

security for themselves and their families. WLDF has
worked for more than a decade for child support and
welfare reforms that assist poor families, and has
participated as amicus curiae in cases challenging punitive
and coercive welfare policies. 'WLDF also advocates for
policies to combat domestic violence.

The YWCA of the U.S.A. is the oldest women’s
membership organization in the nation. Founded in 1858,
it currently serves over two million girls, women and their
families through 400 YWCAs in 4,000 locations throughout
the country. Strengthened by diversity, the Association
draws together members who strive to create opportunities
for women’s growth, leadership and power in order to
attain a common vision: peace, justice, freedom and
dignity for all people. Because we advocate for public
policies that ensure battered women the right to equal
protection and the right to travel across state lines to avoid
stalking and further abuse, the YWCA of the U.S.A.
supports the position taken in the amicus curiae brief.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/brief%3Amicro_IA40385013_0603%3A15. Public record. Not legal advice.