NYC Attorney Challenges VAWA in Federal Court

I have recently gotten an interesting e-mail from Jim Peterson of Veterans Abroad:

"Hi CounterFeminist: Although this should have happened in early 2006, someone has finally found the courage to do his own challenge against parts of VAWA, which is what IMBRA is part of. Here is the complaint and the press release. Let’s hope the judge is fair. Roy might need help in terms of expert witnesses, such as the stories of other men who have been hurt by VAWA. Recall that the two challenges against IMBRA were done with lawyers who didn’t feel any personal interest in the issue. This guy has skin in the game."

Of the three PDF files that were attached to this message, I share one in its entirety, below. This summarizes (without legalese) the salient facts of the case:

"ROY DEN HOLLANDER - Attorney at Law
545 East 14th Street 10D, New York, NY 10009
Mobile 917 687 0652
Tel. & Fax: (212) 995-5201
rdhhh@yahoo.com

"Federal lawsuit charges parts of the Violence against Women Act are unconstitutional.

"Attorney Roy Den Hollander filed on Valentine’s Day, February 14th, a suit in the U.S. Southern District Court of N.Y. attacking sections of the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”) and other U.S. statutes for violating the Constitutional rights of American men who marry alien females.

"The defendants are the United States of America, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Executive Office of Immigration Review, No. 08 CV 01521. Roy Den Hollander is the sole plaintiff. 1

"The VAWA infringes American men’s rights to freedom of speech, freedom of choice in marital relationships, right of access to deportation proceedings, procedural due process, and equal protection under the law in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

"The unconstitutional statutes, enacted at the behest of the feminist lobby, create a fast track to permanent U.S. residency and citizenship for alien wives or ex-wives of American husbands whenever the alien female alleges abuse. Once she mentions the magic words“battery” or “extreme cruelty”, the Government institutes secret, “Star Chamber” immigration proceedings to determine whether the citizen husband is responsible, and, if yes, grants the alien female permanent U.S. residency. The American husband or ex-husband receives no notice of the proceedings, has no opportunity to defend his name, and the Government’s findings of abuse are based almost exclusively on what the alien female says.

"The feminist lobby created the statutes in order to deter American men from looking overseas for wives. If a man’s marriage to his foreign wife doesn’t work out, the alien female can accuse him of “battery” or “extreme cruelty” and he will have no opportunity to prove his innocence. The husband is barred from the proceedings that are conducted behind closed doors and any evidence that the Government might receive from him is discarded. So not only is the husband presumed guilty, but he’s not even allowed to prove differently.

"The feminists didn’t create these statutes out of bleeding hearts for alien wives but to intimidate American men into shopping at home for wives. If an American wife accuses her husband of abuse, he at least gets his day in court and the abuse has to fit specific legal definitions. But under the VAWA, a husband can be found guilty of “battery” and “extreme cruelty” for anything from an “offensive” remark to felony assault.

"While the VAWA wouldn’t send an American man to jail or fine him—not yet anyway, his rights are violated with impunity and his reputation destroyed. Both his alien wife or ex-wife and certain feminist groups can release what happened in the secret proceedings, and in New York State, the husband will have no recourse to a defamation, false light or prima facie tort cause of action no matter how false or harmful the accusations against him.

"Even terrorists have more rights than American men accused of abuse by their alien wives."
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1 Den Hollander is the same attorney who brought a class action suit against various nightclubs in NYC for discriminating against men during Ladies Nights.