Supreme Court limits Violence Against Women Act civil rights remedy in Morrison

The Supreme Court rules in United States v. Morrison on June 12, 2000, striking down the civil damages remedy in the Violence Against Women Act. Although the case centers gender-based violence, the ruling narrows Congress’s power to create civil rights remedies under the Commerce Clause and Fourteenth Amendment.\n\nThe Court says Congress cannot regulate noneconomic violent crime through the commerce power and cannot reach private conduct under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment without state action.\n\nThe event matters to civil rights enforcement because it limits federal power to address private violence and affects how Congress designs remedies for discrimination and rights violations.