Martin Dolan of Dolan Law Offices in Chicago was disappointed with the ruling rendered by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on victims of violence as constituting a so-called “suspect class” whose members are entitled to extra protection under the U.S. Constitution.
The decision of the judge was made in the light of the violation made by the Chicago Police cited by Dolan on the right to equal protection by allegedly failing to enforce a protective order requested by Mersaides McCauley who was later killed by a former boyfriend.
St. Eve said that Mersaides McCauley and other victims of abused of former partners or relatives do not meet the definition of the U.S. Supreme Court of a “suspect class” and that they are only “certainly sympathetic.”
Further, the judge explained that “suspect class” includes those whose members historically and deliberately have been subjected to unequal treatment, citing Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307 (1976) as legal basis. She added that classifications based on sex, race, ancestry and nationality are inherently suspect but classification based on the member’s status as victim of domestic violence does not count.
Martin A. Dolan, an experienced civil rights lawyer in Chicago and the lead attorney for the McCauley Estate, said that he was considering bringing the case to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He added that domestic violence must fall under the suspect class in the United States that needs greater protection as enshrined in the Constitution.