The Bradley Amendment greatly impacts men (and women) who are behind in child support payments. The term “Bradley Amendment” is the common name given to the set of amendments introduced by Senator Bill Bradley, the most notable of which is the amendment to 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(9)(c), requiring state courts to prohibit retroactive reduction of child support obligations – meaning that an obligation incurred can never be extinguished or modified by the courts, even if the debtor is unemployed, hospitalized, in prison, sent to war, dead, proven to not be the father, or suffers a pay cut.
The key provisions of the ‘Bradley Amendment’ are as follows:
- automatically triggers a non-expiring lien whenever child support becomes past-due
- overrides any state's statute of limitations
- disallows any form of judicial discretion, including from bankruptcy judges
- requires that payment amounts be maintained without regard for the physical capability of the person owing child support or of changed circumstances of which the court lacked notification
- grants states the authority to withhold or suspend, or to restrict the use of driver’s licenses, professional and occupational licenses, and recreational and sporting licenses of individuals owing overdue support
- allows the states to seize tax returns, bank accounts, or other assets
The effects of Bradley Amendment are far-reaching and highly controversial. It was intended to correct the common inequity between the power of the payee (usually the mother) and the payer (usually the father) of past due child support obligations. But the result of this incredibly inflexible law has been that it is nearly impossible for all but the very wealthy to get out from under large sums of child support debt. Each year, thousands of fathers lose their driver's licenses, which in turn makes it difficult for them to work to pay down the obligation, and leads to an endless cycle of child support debt governed by the Amendment (as well as a continuation of the numerous consequences imposed).
In 2004, the Bradley Amendment was challenged as unconstitutional. The case was dismissed in 2006. Congress has made no effort to change or repeal the Bradley amendment despite continued protests from many unrelated groups and private citizens.
