The National Organization for Women reports that America's family courts are "incompetent and corrupt." Family law is rife with conflicts-of-interest and routinely denies due process of law, says NOW.

No one familiar with family court would argue that they are not corrupt. Yet NOW's objection seems to be that family court is not corrupt enough. NOW claims family courts are biased against mothers, but their only evidence is that the courts do not throw enough fathers out of their families.

NOW's assessment is based not on facts but on surveys of its supporters: angry women who have learned they can use the courts to separate child from their fathers. NOW says "women report" that "batterers or abusers are easily able to obtain custody of their children." But NOW provides not a single documented instance of a violent or incestuous father getting custody.

Family courts grew up in conjunction with no-fault divorce. Both were largely the creations of organized feminism. The first principle of family court is to remove the father from the home. Mothers too are sometimes forced away from their children, but NOW seems to regard that as a small price to pay for the power to eliminate fathers.

Though purporting to be a critique of the very real corruption in family Courts, NOW's report is an attack on fathers and a manifesto for removing more fathers from their homes and their children.

In fact family courts are far more destructive and dangerous than NOW alleges. Family courts routinely confiscate children from parents who have done nothing wrong. Family courts incarcerate massive numbers of parents without trial, without charge, and without an attorney. And family courts routinely ignore and themselves violate the most basic constitutional rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of speech. But because the targets are overwhelmingly fathers, NOW has nothing to say about it.

Perhaps we should take NOW at its word: If NOW is not happy with its misbegotten child, perhaps it is time to abolish family court. After all, we already have courts to deal with those who break the law and legal agreements. We do not need courts whose bread-and-butter derives from dissolving families. But don't look for real divorce reform from the National Organization for Women.

Stephen Baskerville