The Elizabeth Morgan Act is an act of the

104th United States Congress The 104th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 19 ...

that was declared

unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

in 2003 by the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts of appeals, ...

as being a

bill of attainder A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder, writ of attainder, or bill of pains and penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and providing for a punishment, often without a ...

, because it was written to deny rights to a specific father based on his child's assertion. It was originally introduced as , by Rep.

Thomas M. Davis Thomas Milburn Davis III (born January 5, 1949) is an American lobbyist and former politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Virginia's 11th congressional district from 1995 to 2008. A member of the Re ...

. It was passed as a rider of the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997 (, ).

Background

In 1985 Washington, DC plastic surgeon Dr. Elizabeth Morgan accused her ex-husband, dentist Dr. Eric Foretich, of sexually abusing their daughter Hilary, then two years old. Morgan, who had primary custody of the child, then attempted to have Foretich's visitation rights revoked. After a police investigation was unable to substantiate Morgan's claims, a judge ordered her to allow the child to visit her father without supervision. When Morgan refused to do so, she was held in contempt of court and was indefinitely detained in August 1987. While in jail, Morgan refused to reveal the whereabouts of her daughter, who was living with Morgan's parents in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. In 1989, Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia introduced the bill that became the District of Columbia Civil Contempt Imprisonment Limitation Act (, ). That legislation removed the provision of District of Columbia law that permitted indefinite detention for

civil contempt Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the co ...

. While the bill did not mention Morgan or Foretich by name, its authors admitted that it was specifically intended to free Morgan from jail. After being detained for 25 months, Morgan was released from jail shortly after the act was passed into law in September 1989, and subsequently moved to New Zealand to join her parents and her daughter. Wolf again involved himself in the case when he co-sponsored the 1996 rider bill that became the Elizabeth Morgan Act. The new law was narrowly worded to apply to the circumstances of Morgan's daughter, allowing the child in those circumstances to refuse consent to custody or visitation by her father, and preventing the District of Columbia courts from issuing custody or visitation orders or sanctions against Morgan. Having the protection of the 1996 Congressional act, Morgan and her daughter then returned to the United States. The father, Dr. Eric Foretich, sued against the effect of the act in 1997. On December 16, 2003, the act was overturned by the

, who ruled that the law was so narrowly written that it targeted Foretich and treated him as a danger to his child without formal charges, illegally punishing him. The law was moot and had no practical effect on the daughter, who was by then 21 and could choose for herself whether or not to see her father.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Elizabeth, Act Acts of the 104th United States Congress Child custody United States federal child welfare legislation United States federal immigration and nationality legislation United States federal legislation articles needing infoboxes Riders to United States federal appropriations legislation

Background

See also

References