Protection Order Policy-making in the U.S. State Courts of Last Resort from 1980 to 2019

• Published date: 01 June 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0160323X19883677
• Author: Andrea Barrick,John C. Kilwein
• Date: 01 June 2019
• Subject Matter: General Interests

General Interest

Protection Order Policy-making

in the U.S. State Courts of

Last Resort from 1980 to 2019

Andrea Barrick

1

and John C. Kilwein

2

Abstract

This article examines the development of policy designed to target intimate partner violence, or

domestic violence, through the use of protection orders in the U.S. state courts of last resort, or the

state supreme courts, from 1980 to 2019. The authors’ study shows that the American state

supreme courts are decidedly supportive of female protection order litigants throughout the period

studied. The model also highlights the importance of state government ideology, percentage of

female justices, and state laws that ban gender hiring discrimination on state supreme court decision-

making in these cases.

Keywords

domestic violence policy, protection orders, state courts

This article examines the develo pment of pol-

icy designed to target intimate partner violence,

or domestic violence, through the use of protec-

tion orders in the U.S. state courts of last resort,

hereafter the state supreme courts, from 1980 to

2019. Protection orders are legal tools designed

to separate abusers from their victims, most

commonly through the civil and family courts.

Prior to 1970, the American legal systems

generally ignored the needs of battered women

(Goldfarb 2008). That lack of systemic concern

began to change in 1976, when Pennsylvania

adopted a law making protection ord ers avail-

able to married victims of domestic violence,

a policy that quickly spread to all fifty states

(Fagan 1996). To explore how these reforms

developed, and their effectiveness, this study

examines cases dealing with protection

orders in the state supreme courts. This article

focuses on these apex courts for a number of

reasons. First, domestic relations law is almost

exclusively a state function. Second, the legal

system, from individual law enforcement of fi-

cers, to prosecutors, to trial courts are at the

front lines of this policy issue and, ultimately,

it is the state supreme courts that will review

the work of these agents, and in the process

develop policy for protection orders. The state

supreme courts make these policy choices

within their unique political, social, cultural,

and legal environments. This article adds to the

literature by examining how these internal and

1

Department of Social Work and Gerontology, Shippens-

burg University, PA, USA

2

Department of Political Science, West Virginia University,

Morgantown, WV, USA

Corresponding Author:

John C. Kilwein, Department of Political Science, West

Virginia University, 307B Woodburn Hall, Morgantown,

WV 26506-6317, USA.

Email: jkilwein@wvu.edu

State and Local GovernmentReview

2019, Vol. 51(2) 83-91

ªThe Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X19883677

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