A district judge in Atlanta upheld the constitutionality of the 2005 International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA). The IMBRA was designed to provide protection to foreign women who marry men through mail order bride agencies by demanding that the companies provide histories of the men who use their services. One such firm, European Connections, filed suit alleging that the requirement to provide criminal backgrounds of the men posing as prospective husbands infringed upon their constitutional rights. In his ruling, Judge Clarence Cooper found the rates of domestic violence against immigrant women are much higher than those of the U.S. population as a whole and that protection of women coming to the U.S outweighs any costs the companies might incur.
Compiled from: Press Release/US: Constitutionality of International Marriage Broker, Layli Miller-Muro, 3 April 2007.