Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 680.0

529US3

Unit: $U54

[10-04-01 09:35:39] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 598 (2000)

605

Opinion of the Court

treatment of women sufﬁciently indicated that his crime was
motivated by gender animus.2 Nevertheless, the court by
a divided vote afﬁrmed the District Court’s conclusion that
Congress lacked constitutional authority to enact § 13981’s
civil remedy. Brzonkala v. Virginia Polytechnic and State
Univ., 169 F. 3d 820 (CA4 1999). Because the Court of Ap-
peals invalidated a federal statute on constitutional grounds,
we granted certiorari. 527 U. S. 1068 (1999).

Section 13981 was part of the Violence Against Women
Act of 1994, § 40302, 108 Stat. 1941–1942.
It states that “[a]ll
persons within the United States shall have the right to be
free from crimes of violence motivated by gender.” 42
U. S. C. § 13981(b). To enforce that right, subsection (c)
declares:

“A person (including a person who acts under color of
any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of
any State) who commits a crime of violence motivated
by gender and thus deprives another of the right de-
clared in subsection (b) of this section shall be liable to
the party injured, in an action for the recovery of com-
pensatory and punitive damages, injunctive and declara-
tory relief, and such other relief as a court may deem
appropriate.”

Section 13981 deﬁnes a “crim[e] of violence motivated by
gender” as “a crime of violence committed because of gender
or on the basis of gender, and due, at least in part, to an

2 The en banc Court of Appeals afﬁrmed the District Court’s conclusion
that Brzonkala failed to state a claim alleging disparate treatment under
Title IX, but vacated the District Court’s dismissal of her hostile environ-
ment claim and remanded with instructions for the District Court to hold
the claim in abeyance pending this Court’s decision in Davis v. Monroe
County Bd. of Ed., 526 U. S. 629 (1999). Brzonkala v. Virginia Poly-
technic and State Univ., 169 F. 3d 820, 827, n. 2 (CA4 1999). Our grant
of certiorari did not encompass Brzonkala’s Title IX claims, and we thus
do not consider them in this opinion.