ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Justice Department has appealed a ruling that prevented a former Virginia Tech student who said she was raped by two football players from suing for damages under a federal law.
Chief U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser ruled July 26 that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which allows victims of gender-motivated crimes to sue their attackers for violating their civil rights.
But the department said Wednesday the ruling flies in the face of another judge's ruling in Connecticut that upheld the law. That judge ruled in a domestic violence case that the law was constitutional.
The appeal of Kiser's decision will be heard by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
The alleged victim in the case, Christy Brzonkala, also has appealed Kiser's ruling. Brzonkala, one of the first women to sue in federal court under the act, contends that Tech football players Tony Morrison and James Crawford raped her in their dorm suite in 1994.
She said the attack was motivated by the players' hatred of women and was not a random act of violence.
Kiser said in his ruling that violence against women is pervasive.
``But Congress is not invested with the authority to cure all of the ills of mankind,'' the judge said. ``Its authority to act is limited by the Constitution, and the constitutional limits must be respected if our federal system is to survive.''
Brzonkala did not report the alleged attacks for several months, and no criminal charges were ever filed against the players.
A disciplinary board at the school cleared Crawford. The board suspended Morrison, but he returned to school after the suspension was overturned by a school official.
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