http://www.acfc.org/site/DocServer/W...pdf?docID=2621

Today (07 OCT 2009) in West Virginia a significant decision was released in
the case of Men and Women Against Discrimination (MAWAD) versus The Family
Protection Services Board of West Virginia. The findings of fact and
conclusions of law contained within Judge Stucky's decision declared several
rules of the West Virginia Family Protection Services Board null and void,
stating the rules directly conflict with the express intent of West
Virginia's legislature that domestic violence programs be administered in a
gender neutral fashion while further finding the rules had a chilling effect
on MAWAD members free speech right.

Read Judge Stucky's entire decision here. Several of the findings and
conclusions include:

19. West Virginia Code 48-26-404 mandates the Board to propose rules for
programs of intervention for perpetrators of domestic violence...

20. In response to this legislative mandate the Board adopted Rule
191-3-3....

21. The promulgation of this rule forms the basis for the Board's official
position that perpetrator intervention programs should actually be and, in
fact are, administered as "batterers" intervention programs with the
fundamental premise that only men can be batterers and therefore only men
are appropriate candidates for participation in perpetrator intervention
programs.

22. The Legislature has expressed a clear intention to provide licensure
and funding of perpetrator intervention programs that are gender-neutral;
the Board, acting on its own, has ignored this intent and created a gender
specific program that includes only men and excludes all women.

From the conclusions:

"The legislature has expressed a clear intention to provide for licensure
and funding of perpetrator intervention programs that are gender-neutral.
The Board, acting on its own, has morphed this intent into a gender specific
program that includes only men and excludes all women...This rule conflicts
with the clear intent of the legislature and is void."