Christine Brzonkala
Petitioner
Martha F. Davis, Counsel of RecordChristy Brzonkala alleges she was raped by Virginia Tech football players Antonio Morrison and James Crawford in September 1994. After the university reversed its initial one-year suspension of Morrison, Brzonkala filed a civil suit in Federal court against Morrison and Crawford under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. On July 2, 1996, the district court ruled that the part of the law allowing such suits was an unconstitutional extension of Federal control into an area reserved for the States. A panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit reversed that ruling, but the panel itself was…