Family Court’s Billion-Dollar Bias Exposed—Truth Scorches Through Feminist Fantasy.
By Richard Luthmann
“Dear Mr. Luthmann”: A Chant Meets Cold Facts
Some self‑styled “Witches” came swinging with charm and statistics about Family Court funding and the Violence Against Women Act. On October 14, they left this comment to the article Family Court Free Press Showdown: Wall Street Dad and Firebrand Journo Expose “Treason” in the System:
Dear Mr. Luthmann,
What the witches would like is more than a sliver of the truth. The attack on the violence against women’s act. Despite the name also protects men who are victims. VAWA covers services for victims of domestic violence , dating violence ,sexual assault, stalking , including housing protection , legal protections, and funding for victims assistance programs.
Provide funding for services like rape crisis centers and hotlines.
Support community based violence prevention programs
Campus initiatives
under served populations
Offer legal aid to survivors$690 Million dollars in the United states in2024 . Vawa a gender neutral law. According to on line data 15.5 million children witness domestic violence . 4.4 million referrals to Cps in 2023. 52.2% were screened out without a full investigation. 546,159 were identified as victims 2,000 children fatalities . undetermined is unknown. Since 1993 to 2023 67 % of sexual abuse substantiations have declined . Physical abuse substantiations declined 63% . The number of deaths due to maltreatment and neglect has increased. Attributed to change in investigation methods and reporting. There is an increase in parental alienation claims through out the court house particularly in custody deputes. Attacking funding only creating a lack of resources to domestic abuse victims.
Parental Alienation claims disproportionately target women/mothers reflecting deeply ingrained bias about women, motherhood and caregiving roles. Battered Women’s support services Jan 31,2025. Mother’s are more likely to report concerns in good faith, even if those concerns are later unsubstantiated due lack of evidence and reform groups wish to have them arrested for it . Despite 52.2% are not fully investigated. The Gals appear to be interfering in investigations. As well as obstructions in investigations. Parental Alienation is now being recoined as Parent- Child contact problems . Once again forces reunification under any condition. Causing years of court ordered services and insisting on contact even in abusive conditions. These are 30 percent of cases and “high conflict ” is just the gateway for these “alienation ” industry professionals to latch onto a cases.
The court professionals are what Mr. Weigel is complaining about , but he and his associates from the shared parenting and alienation community continue to go after funding that helps women and some men with less financial resources to escape. Promote laws and punishments that will stop some parents and children from getting out of abusive situations.
Surviving comes at a cost. It’s not all monetary. Taking away funding from one group and giving advantage to another doesn’t seem to fix the problem. Unhealthy power dynamics don’t fix the problem and is not the same as exposing the real problems. Telling the truth and not knowing things can happen all at the same time .
Let’s strip the spin.
VAWA’s intentions are noble. It funds crisis lines, shelters, and prosecutions.
But the implementation is broken. The funding architecture warps outcomes. The grants reward findings, training, and process, not truth.
In that world, allegations become currency. And courts become cash registers with gavels.
My beefs are disciplined and specific. VAWA has been co‑opted by a gendered narrative and a hungry bureaucracy. The facts back me up.
VAWA Witches Brew: Follow the Money Feeding the Court Machine
First, the money. DOJ announced “more than $690 million in Violence Against Women Act funding” in 2024. Senate appropriators peacocked “$713 million, the highest funding level ever” for the Office on Violence Against Women that year. This is not chump change. It is a river. The witches’ $690 million boast is real. The tap is wide open.
Second, where it goes. One marquee program is STOP. The DOJ says each state “must allocate … 5 percent to state and local courts.” In 2024, OVW reported 56 STOP awards totaling $171.2 million. That is a carved slice for courts on top of law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim services. Another program, the ICJR grant, explicitly “assists state, local, and Tribal governments, and courts to improve the criminal justice response.” You can argue over outcomes. You cannot deny the architecture: VAWA funds the courts.
Third, how courts use it. The National Center for State Courts surveyed how VAWA STOP money gets spent. After Congress changed the law in 2013 from funds “for” courts to funds “to” courts, most states reported they now receive the full five‑percent set‑aside. The most common use is training judges and court staff on domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The structure is deliberate. It feeds court systems and their vendors. It grows a professional class that thrives on continuing controversy. Luthmann’s jab lands: “Every ‘custody decision’ comes with a ledger entry.” Incentives shape outcomes.
If you want to see the bias bleed through, look at who gets served. The official VAWA report to Congress says “about 1 in 10” victims served was male: 9% in discretionary programs, 13% in STOP, 11% in SASP. The law reads gender‑neutral. The implementation tilts. That is not a culture war. That is the government’s own chart.
VAWA Witches Brew: The Narrative Weapon – How Allegations Become Leverage
The witches say reformers are cruel to mothers. They claim “parental alienation” is a cudgel against women. They cite advocates who argue it “punish[es] survivors and endanger[s] children.” They note professionals now rebrand it as “parent‑child contact problems.” There is truth here. Abusers sometimes flip the script. Bad actors cry “alienation” to bury violence. No serious reformer denies that tactic.
But the opposite tactic exists and thrives. Family lawyers call it the “Silver Bullet.” One legal analysis puts it plainly: false abuse allegations have become a strategic litigation tool. In high‑conflict cases, a single claim triggers protective orders, excludes a parent from home and children, and flips leverage overnight. Psychiatric Times found estimates of false allegations in cases involving children range from 2% to 35%. Even a small percentage in a huge system is devastating. These are not fringe blogs. They are mainstream observers describing courtroom reality.
Add process to narrative. Many states issue temporary restraining orders ex parte on short timelines. Scholars have warned for years that easing access can ease abuse of the process. Texas reviewed protective orders in 2024 and underscored the low, fast threshold for temporary relief. None of this says don’t protect victims. It says protect due process too. Because in family court, process decides where a child sleeps tonight. The witches gloss over that risk. Reformers do not. They live it.
Here is the link to VAWA. The more training, lingo, and grant‑funded “services,” the more value a case has when framed as domestic violence. That does not mean survivors lie. It means a system pays premiums for a specific narrative. In that system, good people get help. And bad actors get leverage. VAWA’s implementation makes both outcomes more likely.
VAWA Witches Brew: Fix Courts, Not People – Two Jobs, Then Go Home
The prescription is blunt. Keep family courts to two tasks: property determinations and custody determinations. Don’t try to fix people. I see court‑ordered “services” for what they often are: revenue lines for insiders.
The machine doesn’t care about your child’s stability—it cares that your case stays open and that the revolving door of ‘services’ keeps spinning. That should chill every parent. It sure chills me.
VAWA’s noble goals cannot mask ugly results. Even after reauthorization, tragedies forced Congress to tack on Kayden’s Law to clamp down on lethal custody errors. The Biden White House celebrated the 2022 reauthorization. Advocates explain Kayden’s Law “incentivizes” states to overhaul custody laws to protect at‑risk kids.
It took a murder to get reform language. That is not victory. That is an indictment. More rules and more money came after courts failed a little girl. A federal act cannot save children if courtrooms stay unaccountable.
So here is my rebuttal, straight. VAWA is well‑intentioned. Its implementation is terrible. It has been co‑opted by a gendered lens and a bureaucracy with bills to pay. DOJ sprays hundreds of millions every year. STOP sets aside cash “to” courts. Consultants, GALs, evaluators, and training mills thrive. Families do not.
Judges aren’t Solomon. They’re accountants with gavels. That line stings because it rings true. The fix is not more therapy orders and forced reunifications. The fix is less court social engineering.
Decide property. Decide custody. Then let families heal without a meter running.
The Family Court system doesn’t need more civility. It needs fire. Burn the perverse incentives. Leave the truth.
To the Witches: You love victims. But love demands accountability. Funding without guardrails buys mythology and mission creep. The witches offered a spell. The numbers broke it. Now let’s fix the courts and stop pretending the machine is mercy.
The Witches are Wondering