A New Jersey appellate court today ruled in favor of a forced marriage survivor — in line with our friend-of-the-court brief on her behalf — and reversed an unconstitutional trial court decision that prohibited her from speaking on social media about her desire to obtain a Jewish religious divorce from her husband, whom she described as abusive.
The victory came after Unchained At Last, a nonprofit working to end forced and child marriage, joined other groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief with the appellate court to urge justice for the woman, to whom the appellate division referred as L.B.B.
L.B.B. had taken to social media to express anguish that her husband was withholding a get, or a religious divorce. Under Orthodox Jewish law, only a man is allowed to grant a divorce. L.B.B. asked her community to press her husband to release her from their marriage.
Accepting arguments grounded in antisemitic tropes, the trial court determined that L.B.B.’s plea for help was a form of harassment and an incitement to violence, and it ordered L.B.B. to remove her posts and refrain from speaking again about her status as an agunah, or “chained woman” – the term for a woman whose husband refuses to give her a get.
“When L tried to get help to end her suffering as an agunah, the trial court responded by tightening her shackles and silencing her,” said our founder/executive director Fraidy Reiss, herself a forced marriage survivor from the Orthodox Jewish community.
We joined the ACLU of New Jersey, the ACLU, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance and Sanctuary for Families to file a friend-of-the-court brief that affirmed that the state and federal constitutions protect speech by a person experiencing abuse and seeking her community’s support. The Organization for the Resolution of Agunot and the Shalom Task Force filed a separate brief that explained the social and cultural context of “get refusal” in Orthodox Jewish communities and the ramifications of silencing a person in that situation while they are asking for help.
In a published opinion released today, the three-judge appellate panel ruled unanimously that the First Amendment and its state constitutional analog protect L.B.B.’s right to describe her experiences trapped in a religious marriage and to seek her community’s aid.
“Fortunately, the appellate decision dissolves L.B.B.’s legal binds, freeing her to exercise her First Amendment rights,” Fraidy said.
