Specifically, it automatically triggers a non-expiring lien whenever child support becomes past-due; overrides any state's statute of limitations; disallows any judicial discretion, even from bankruptcy judges; and requires that the payment amounts be maintained without regard for the physical capability of the person owing child support (the obligor) to promptly document changed circumstances or regard for his awareness of the need to make the notification.
Authors Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson attribute the Bradley Amendment's origin to a January 1986 CBS News special report, The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America, hosted by Bill Moyers.
Edin and Nelson noted that The Vanishing Family "went on to win every major award in journalism" and inspired overwhelmingly sympathetic reactions from influential commentators, leading to the amendment's proposal in May 1986.
[6] In 2011, William S. Boyd School of Law professor Ann Cammett published a scholarly article which criticized the Bradley Amendment for compounding prisoners' debts and for preempting other approaches to child support.
[8] In 2018, Lynne Haney, a sociology professor at New York University, wrote an opinion article in the Los Angeles Times calling for reform of the Bradley Amendment.