United States v. Morrison (2000) 529 U.S. 598 [120 S.Ct. 1740, 146 L.Ed.2d. 658]

In the 1999-2000 Term, Horvitz & Levy LLP filed an amicus brief in United States v. Morrison (2000) 529 U.S. _____ [120 S.Ct. 1740, 146 L.Ed.2d. 658], in support of the United States and Christy Brzonkala, who alleged she had been raped by two football players as a college freshman, and had filed a federal lawsuit seeking civil damages from her attackers under the Civil Rights Remedy of the Violence Against Women Act, which gave victims of gender-motivated violence the right to sue their attackers in court. The friend of the court brief Horvitz & Levy LLP filed on behalf of Equal Rights Advocates and a broad coalition of thirty-nine other women's, civil rights, business, labor, medical, and legal services organizations in support of the Civil Rights Remedy's constitutionality presented social science data, available at the time of the remedy's enactment and subsequent to it, "documenting the severe limitations gender-based violence places on women's contributions to the national economy, as well as the direct and immediate medical and social costs caused by such violence."

By a 5 to 4 vote, the Court declared the Civil Rights Remedy to be an unconstitutional exercise of federal power under both the Commerce Clause and Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, in one of the dissenting opinions, Justice Breyer, joined by three other justices, cited the Horvitz & Levy amicus brief with approval. The amicus brief was one of twenty filed in the case, and the only one cited by any Supreme Court justice.

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