Has The American Family Court System Become Totalitarian

Has the American Family Court in sickening detail how the court system
serves the most vindictive and ruthless

System Become Totalitarian? parent.
Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. Even without the book, astute observers of
This article was originally published in this case realized that something was
FamilyinAmerica.org and is used here with slightly strange about the claims that
permission. Baldwin should be denied access to his
child. For instance, who released the tape of
IN 2007, THE MEDIA HAD A FEEDING the call to the public? None other than
FRENZY around a voice-mail message Basinger and her attorney, in an attempt to
actor Alec Baldwin left his daughter. He smear Baldwin. What kind of mother would
screamed at her for not answering her use her daughter as a pawn in a spiteful
phone. The public was shocked: many power game with the child's father? And,
assumed that he was yet another self- what was the “back story” to this particular
absorbed celebrity, with neither control over phone call? Despite having court
himself nor regard for his daughter. But in authorization for phone contact with his
fact, Baldwin had been caught in the web of daughter, her cell phone would be turned off
the totalitarian nightmare known as the for long periods of time. On this particular
American family court system. His book, A occasion, she was on spring break with her
Promise to Ourselves, tells his particular mother and her phone had been turned off
story, while Stephen Baskerville's book, for ten days. Moreover, isn't this odd all by
Taken Into Custody, presents the general itself that a father who has committed no
problem of which Baldwin’s story is a crime has to have court permission to speak
particular case. to his own child?
Alec Baldwin is a divorced father, who had Now, what the media made Baldwin out to
been fighting for six years to have some be is conceivable: an abusive, out-of-control
semblance of a normal relationship with his father who has inflicted irreparable harm on
child. Baldwin's estranged wife, actress Kim his daughter through verbal abuse. Yet even
Basinger, had been using the family court if the worst about Baldwin were true (by the
system to prevent him from doing what most way, he offers no excuses for yelling at his
fathers take for granted: seeing his child, daughter), his portrait of the Los Angeles
talking with his child, and watching her County Family Court remains imminently
grow up. A Promise to Ourselves chronicles
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse • 663 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road Suite 222 San Marcos CA 92078
www.jennifer-roback-morse.com • email: drj@jennifer-roback-morse.com • 760/295-9278
©2007 No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any way without the expressed written consent of the
Ruth Institute.
valuable, as it reveals the extent of power He tells of the menagerie of minions
that family courts wield over ordinary appointed by the court to manage the
citizens. His account cannot be easily divorcing process and the inevitable post-
dismissed, given the extent of detail that he divorce conflict: forensic accountants,
provides and the fact that it accords with too custody evaluators, therapists, visitation
many other reports of family courts. As he supervisors, parenting class instructors,
tells his story, the leading character and the anger management instructors. These are all
true villain is the Los Angeles Family Court professionals that most people normally
system, Lady Macbeth, Iago, and Shylock never see, but who have abnormally large
all rolled into one. Even from the viewpoint impacts on the lives of divorcing families.
of a wealthy and famous man, Baldwin Think of this: the courts and their appointees
generates plenty of sympathy for the obscure are controlling the day-to-day lives of a man
and the less wealthy of both sexes who are innocent of any wrongdoing. A negative
caught in the grip of the family court. report from any one of these professionals
can jeopardize a father's chances of having
He first noticed the financial intrusion. more time with his own child.
During “financial settlement conferences,”
both husbands and wives must reveal all Baldwin does not discuss the ease of divorce
their assets. While Baldwin accepts the ushered by the no-fault divorce revolution.
necessity of preventing people from hiding Like most Americans, Baldwin has probably
their true net worth, he noticed this side made peace with no-fault divorce, believing
effect: “The lawyers on both sides now easy divorce to be an enhancement of
know, inarguably, how much money you individual liberty. But Baldwin's story of his
have and, therefore, how deeply into this life after Basinger decided she had no use
hole you can go. And they do not hesitate to for him illustrates that the opposite is more
throw you down as deeply as they possibly true. Easy divorce opens the door for an
can.” Throughout the rest of the story, the unprecedented amount of government
lawyers extract as much money as possible intrusion into ordinary people's lives. This
from him. unacknowledged reality is the subject of
Taken Into Custody, by Stephen Baskerville.
But money isn't the half of it. Baldwin had With penetrating insight, the political
to continually look over his shoulder at the scientist exposes the truly breathtaking
court and its representatives to ensure that consequences of no-fault divorce for the
he did not run afoul of their requirements.
Ruth Institute.
expansion of state power and the decline of always a victim. Thus, the social experiment
personal autonomy. of no-fault divorce, which most Americans
thought was supposed to increase personal
First, no-fault divorce frequently means liberty, has had the consequence of
unilateral divorce: one party wants a divorce empowering the state.
against the wishes of the other, who wants to
stay married. Kim Basinger dumped Some might think the legacy of no-fault
Baldwin for no particular reason, unleashed divorce is an example of the law of
the power of the Los Angeles Family Court unintended consequences in operation. That
system to inflict pain on him and, in the assumes its architects did not intend for
process, inflicted untold damage on their unilateral divorce to result in the expansion
child. Second, the fact that one party wants of the state. But Baskerville makes the case
to remain married means that the divorce in this book—as well as his 2008
has to be enforced. Baldwin wanted to stay monograph, “The Dangerous Rise of Sexual
married and to continue to be a husband and Politics,” in THE FAMILY IN
father. Yet, the coercive and intrusive AMERICA—that at least some of the
machinery of the state must be wheeled into advocates of changes in family law certainly
action to separate the reluctantly divorced have intended to expand the power of the
party from the joint assets of the marriage, state over the private lives of law-abiding
typically the home and the children. citizens.
Third, enforcing the divorce means an Who are these people? They are the
unprecedented blurring of the boundaries Marxists, who call themselves advocates of
between public and private life. People women: the feminists. Unbeknownst to the
under the jurisdiction of family courts can general public, the Marxists have had
have virtually all of their private lives marriage in their cross-hairs from the very
subject to its scrutiny. If the courts are beginning. Frederick Engels, Karl Marx's
influenced by feminist ideology, that closest collaborator, dreams of the mythic,
ideology can extend its reach into every pre-historical, pre-capitalist time in The
bedroom and kitchen in America. Baldwin Origin of the Family, Private Property, and
ran the gauntlet of divorce industry the State (1884). Not only was there
professionals who have been deeply primitive communism in which property
influenced by the feminist presumptions that was owned in common, but there was also
the man is always at fault and the woman is group marriage, in which the collective
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raised the children. Men and women lived ”Criminal Law Comes Home.” In this
together in harmony in groups, having sex article, Suk expresses second thoughts about
without becoming possessive and without some consequences of feminist
caring about the biological relationship jurisprudence. For this reason, Baldwin
between parents and children. Sin entered thought the young Harvard law professor
this Garden of Eden, not through a serpent would have some sympathy for his situation.
and an apple, but through the rise of private Nonetheless, even this relatively sensible
property and capitalism, monogamous law professor has drunk deeply from the
marriage, and patriarchy. feminist fountains. As Baldwin comments
after his discussion with her family law class
This background ideology explains why the of eighty students:
Left—whether the Bolsheviks in Russia in
1917 or the Socialist government of Spain in I was surprised to hear a number of women
2005, both of which placed the liberalization and men—many more than I would have
of divorce law among their first items of expected—say that women generally are at
business—has spent so much effort risk of male violence. A few students, male
attacking the family in general and marriage and female, even thought the law should
in particular. The goal is to return women view the sex act as subordinating of
into “social production” outside the home, someone and should assume that sex is rape
where they can be completely independent unless women explicitly and verbally give
of the oppression of men. This of course, their consent.
requires the collective rearing of children. It
also requires the obliteration of the Note the Marxist undercurrent here: the
distinction between the private sphere of the sexual act is a special case of class conflict,
home and the public reach of the law. Many with the man as the presumed oppressor and
conservatives, who otherwise are very alert the woman the presumed victim.
to Leftist ideology, have no idea about this More troubling is what Professor Suk admits
entire effort at centralizing power and in her interview with Baldwin:
insinuating the control of the state into the
lives of ordinary people. Governance feminism is the idea that
feminism, which once criticized the law
Baldwin closes his book with an interview from the outside, is today actually in charge
with Jeannie Suk, author of an important in many places in the law—among police,
2006 Yale Law Journal article, entitled, prosecutors, lawmakers, judges and other
Ruth Institute.
legal actors. The feminism that often She at least recognizes that the law has gone
'governs' today is that strand developed by too far. But her principle complaint is that
legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon and that women's autonomy interests are
focuses on the subordination of women by compromised. Once the Domestic Violence
men, particularly in intimate and sexual Machinery has been set into motion, even
relationships. Her influence on our legal the victim herself cannot stop it. She reports
system's understandings of men and women that approximately 80 percent of domestic
cannot be overstated. violence victims recant or refuse to
cooperate after initially filing criminal
The overwhelming majority of domestic charges. But she can’t bring herself to point
violence arrests are for misdemeanor crimes, out the injustice to men of being excluded
which, by definition, do not involve serious from their own homes, often with minimal
injury.... The definition of violence itself has evidence. She has absolutely nothing to say
expanded to include a lot of conduct that is about the harms done to children from being
not physical violence. pawns in their parents’ quarrels with each
Family law is an area where we've seen other and with the state. The inertia of forty
feminist developments that prefer wives years worthy of Marxism posing as
over husbands and mothers over fathers.... champions of women is so strong that even
The legal vision of the home has someone like Professor Suk cannot bear to
increasingly become that of a man being distance herself from the term “feminism.”
violent toward his wife. Likewise, despite the explicit ideological
The legal system has little means to position of the Harvard law students,
distinguish (protective) orders that actually Baldwin cannot bring himself to be angry:
protect endangered women from those I was fascinated to hear some of these law
sought for strategic reasons. students talk about the world as though men
Suk doesn't seem to realize how indicting inevitably have the upper hand in
these statements sound to someone outside relationships and women's fear of sexual
the Feminist Legal Theory Game Preserve. violence is prevalent and normal, not
In fact, her Yale Law Journal article reveals unusual. This picture was so interesting and
that feminists specifically attack the lines so foreign to me. In my own experience,
between public and private in the interests of women have lots of power of various kinds,
protecting women from domestic violence. and sexual power works both ways.
Ruth Institute.
Baldwin seems reluctant to conclude that the
feminist worldview is not based upon
verifiable facts or empirical evidence. The
strongest description Baldwin can conjure
against the law students is “fascination” and
“interesting.” So mesmerized by the
terminology of “feminism” that he cannot
see that the attitudes of Suk's students are
the very toxins that poisoned his life.
Fortunately, we have Professor Baskerville

as the great theorist of the feminist influence
within the divorce-industrial complex. He
sees Marxist feminism for what it is: a
totalitarian movement that seeks power and
control over every aspect of people's
personal lives. The claim of its foot soldiers
to be the sole authentic advocates for
women has been questionable for some
time. But until Americans see that the goal
of modern feminism is raw power, even its
victims like Alec Baldwin will have trouble
freeing themselves from its iron hand.
Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is an

economist and the Founder and President of
the Ruth Institute, a nonprofit educational
organization devoted to bringing hope and
encouragement for lifelong married love.
She is also the author of Love and
Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a
Village and Smart Sex: Finding Life-Long
Love in a Hook-Up World.
Ruth Institute.

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Has The American Family Court System Become Totalitarian

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Has the American Family Court in sickening detail how the court system

serves the most vindictive and ruthless

Fortunately, we have Professor Baskerville

Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. is an

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