GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

Status

Accepted

Abstract

The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA) expands federal regulation of the burgeoning "mail-order bride" industry by requiring international matchmaking agencies to conduct minimal criminal background checks on their U.S.-based clients and disclose the results to participating women, obtaining their signed consent before releasing any contact information to male clients. Two federal suits challenging IMBRA complain that it violates equal protection guarantees by exempting not-for-profit and religious matchmaking agencies, and violates First Amendment protections for commercial speech by regulating the agencies' communications with its clients. Defenders of the law's constitutionality accurately but incompletely describe IMBRA's purpose as preventing domestic violence and human trafficking against immigrant women. IMBRA is also intended to target a form of involuntary servitude hidden by marriage: forced and coerced extortion of domestic and sexual services, practices intrinsic to women's experiences of slavery in the United States. IMBRA is, therefore, a legitimate exercise of Congress' authority under the Thirteenth Amendment. Failure to prosecute crimes of involuntary servitude arising in the domestic sphere leaves women and girls without adequate and equal protection of the law.

GW Paper Series

GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 337; GWU Legal Studies Research Paper No. 337

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