NCJ Number
165895
Journal
Domestic Violence Report Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: (December/January 1997) Pages: 23-26
Editor(s)
J Zorza
Date Published
1997
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This report reviews recent court cases in the States that dealt with protective orders issued in the context of domestic violence.
Abstract
In South Dakota the State Supreme Court held that a protection order was not an overbroad restriction on free speech nor was the injunction against "verbal contact" unconstitutionally vague. An appellate court in Massachusetts held that the word "contact" was not unconstitutionally vague, since the meaning of "no contact" was emphasized by the clauses following it. A Rhode Island court, on the other hand, ruled that a spoken greeting and a wave in public places did not rise to the level of "contact." A Maryland court held that prior incidents of abuse were admissible in a protective order hearing, and a Pennsylvania court ruled that a protective order may be issued without evidence of actual or attempted violence. Two New Jersey cases considered when it is appropriate to dissolve restraining orders, and in North Dakota a protection order was not invalidated by failure to attach a stalking code section. Also, mutual restraining orders were struck down in Wisconsin and Oklahoma when there is no evidence that one of the parties is a threat to the other.