United States law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well a ...

, the Bradley Amendment () is an amendment intended to improve the effectiveness of child support enforcement. It is named after Senator

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination f ...

, who introduced it. The Bradley Amendment requires state courts to prohibit retroactive reduction of

child support Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...

obligations. Specifically, it automatically triggers a non-expiring

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the per ...

whenever child support becomes past-due; overrides any state's

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

; disallows any judicial discretion, even from bankruptcy judges; and requires that the payment amounts be maintained without regard for the physical capability of the person owing child support (the ''obligor'') to promptly document changed circumstances or regard for his awareness of the need to make the notification.

History

Authors Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson attribute the Bradley Amendment's origin to a January 1986

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...

special report, '' The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America'', hosted by

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

. Edin and Nelson noted that ''The Vanishing Family'' "went on to win every major award in journalism" and inspired overwhelmingly sympathetic reactions from influential commentators, leading to the amendment's proposal in May 1986. The amendment text was included in the Sixth Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, 1986, bill S.2706.

Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Provisions - Amends part D Child Support of title IV of the Act to prohibit the retroactive modification of child support arrearages except with respect to such arrearages which accumulate after the obligee and entity which is issued the child support order receive notice that the obligor has pending an active application for modification of such order.

Senator

, Democrat of New Jersey, introduced the amendment in an earlier bill on May 5, 1986. It passed in the Senate with amendments with an 88–7 vote on September 20, 1986. The related House resolution H.R. 5300 was signed into law on October 21, 1986.

Criticism

Legislators and scholars have called for reform of the Bradley Amendment. From 2004, the Bradley Amendment was challenged as unconstitutional and was the subject of a repeal effort; in February 2006 the court case was dismissed. In 2011, William S. Boyd School of Law professor Ann Cammett published a scholarly article which criticized the Bradley Amendment for compounding prisoners' debts and for preempting other approaches to child support. Columnist

Diane Dimond Diane Dimond (born November 15, 1952) is an American investigative journalist, author, syndicated columnist, and TV commentator. She is best known for breaking the story of child molestation allegations against singer Michael Jackson and her co ...

cited the Bradley Amendment as "working against the wronged man," criticizing the amendment for prohibiting state judges from retroactively modifying orders for persons to pay child support even when a purported father later proves that he is not the parent. In 2018, Lynne Haney, a sociology professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

, wrote an opinion article in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' calling for reform of the Bradley Amendment. Haney noted the significant number of child support debtors, particularly African American fathers, who have been imprisoned for failing to pay their child support obligations.

References

{{reflist 1986 in law 99th United States Congress Child support United States federal child welfare legislation United States federal legislation articles without infoboxes