While it may seem surprising that Maryland Attorney General, Anthony Brown, would support an ex post facto law,[1] in February he announced he would “in good faith” do just that.[2] S.B. 686, known as the Child Victims Act (herein after “Child Victims Act”), which would proactively and retroactively repeal the statute of limitations imposed on cases brought by individuals who claim they were sexually assaulted as children,[3] passed the Maryland Senate on April 6th.[4] Attorney General Brown does acknowledge that, if brought before the Supreme Court of Maryland, it is unclear if the law would be found constitutional.[5] Nevertheless, he has said he will be ready to defend the law.[6]
The Child Victims Act was presented to the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on February 23 by Senator Will Smith.[7] In his presentation, he said the law would “create a permanent window for older victims […] and would allow both public and private entities to be sued.”[8] Under the new law, private entities could be liable for civil damages up to $1.5 million and public entities up to $850,000.[9] On April 6th, the law overwhelmingly passed the Senate 42-5.[10] Governor Wes Moore, who supported the bill, said he “looked forward to signing it into law.”[11]
The previous law allowed for a “lookback window” of only 20 years past the age of majority.[12] Child advocates long pushed for an elimination of the statute of limitations in these cases, which they say are meant to protect institutions that shield sexual predators; the most famous being the Archdiocese of Baltimore.[13] In 2017, in fact, House Delegate C.T. Wilson negotiated with the Roman Catholic Church to increase the limitation age from 25 years to 38 years old.[14]
Supporters for the Child Victims Act were bolstered by the release of Attorney General Brown’s four-page letter concluding that a review of relevant caselaw resulted in a finding that “Senate Bill 686 is not clearly unconstitutional.”[15] That double negative, and Attorney General Brown’s commitment to defend the bill, left supporters hopeful that the legislation was one step closer to supporting victims of childhood sexual abuse at all ages.
At the hearing, lawmakers heard powerful testimony from victims of sexual abuse that they experienced during childhood.[16] Some of the most notable testimony came from survivors of rape and sexual abuse by priests at the now-closed Catholic school, Seton Keough High School.[17] Their testimony was made all the more wrenching as it came only a few days after a Baltimore Circuit Judge ordered the release of a grand jury report documenting decades of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, involving 158 priests and more than 600 children. [18]
Although the motivation behind the Child Victims Act has roots in the Catholic sex abuse scandals—a topic which is known to fire up fierce public opinion—the discourse surrounding the bill underestimates the scope of its potential impact. First, the number of victims who will benefit from this bill is much larger than the numbers reported in the Catholic sex abuse cases. In 2020, the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault reported that 2,059 children had experienced sexual abuse, and the percentage of children who experience sexual assault in the state is significantly higher than the national average.[19] Clearly a widespread social issue in Maryland, this bill will open the doors of justice for thousands of victims even in its first few years.
Second, the bill respects the understanding that mental health recovery for each survivor is different.[20] Limiting the years in which a survivor of assault can seek the help they need and progress to a point in which they are capable of bringing suit against their abusers is added cruelty in addition to litigation stress and mental anguish for already-suffering victims. The Child Victims Act gives victims the time to process their trauma before bringing suit and ultimately respects that, for each person, the journey to justice is different. Instead of shutting the window of opportunity for those victims, the Maryland Legislature and Attorney General have committed to the fight to keep it open.
Alexandria Hodge is a third-year J.D. Candidate at the University of Baltimore School of Law and an Associate Editor for Law Forum. A former high school English and Special Education reading teacher, Alexandria is currently a judicial law clerk for the Office of Administrative Law Judges, Office of Hearings and Appeals at the United States Department of Education. Prior to law school, she received her M.Ed. in Education at the University College London in 2016 and her MSc.Ed. in Interdisciplinary Education Studies: Urban Education Policy at the Johns Hopkins University in 2021. After graduation, Alexandria will be joining the School Law Division at Stock & Leader, where she will serve as a School Board Attorney for public school districts in central Pennsylvania.
Read more: Maryland Legislature and Attorney General Push Open Window Through Which Survivors of Child Sexual Assault Can “Look Back” to Bring Suit Against Abuser[1] Ex post facto law, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019) (“Constitutional law. A statute that criminalizes an action and simultaneously provides for punishment of those who took the action before it had legally become a crime; specif., a law that impermissibly applies retroactively, esp. in a way that negatively affects a person’s rights, as by making into a crime an action that was legal when it was committed or increasing the punishment for past conduct. Ex post facto criminal laws are prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. But retrospective civil laws may be allowed.”).
[2] William J. Ford, Maryland Attorney General Says He Would ‘In Good Faith’ Defend Law to Lift Statute of Limitations on Sexual Abuse Claims, Maryland Matters (Feb. 24, 2023), https://www.marylandmatters.org/2023/02/24/atty-general-brown-will-in-good-faith-defend-rights-of-sexual-abuse-claims-at-any-time/.
[3] S.B. 686, 2023 Leg., Reg. Sess. (Md. 2023).
[4] Lee O. Sanderlin, Maryland Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Child Victims Act, The Balt. Sun (Mar. 17, 2023), https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-catholic-church-child-victims-act-20230317-2kioxo3rfbgkdj4evjnkchmpmq-story.html.
[5] Ford, supra note 2.
[6] Id.
[7] Matt Bush, Maryland Lawmakers Consider Bill Allowing Child Sex Abuse Victims to Sue at Any Age and Any Time, WYPR (Feb. 27, 2023, 5:00 AM), https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2023-02-27/maryland-lawmakers-consider-bill-allowing-child-sex-abuse-victims-to-sue-at-any-age-and-any-time.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Sanderlin, supra note 4.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] Id. A 500-page report detailing the sexual assault of more than 600 children and young people at the hands of the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, including the names of priests who were accused and found guilty of abuse, was released by the Maryland Attorney General on April 5, 2023. Read the Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Report from the Maryland Attorney General, The Balt. Sun (Apr. 5, 2023), https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-catholic-church-abuse-report-document-20230405-njvysn2h2baczkwwkb2noi32mu-htmlstory.html.
[14] Id.
[15] Letter from Anthony Brown, Maryland Attorney General (Feb. 22, 2023), https://www.marylandmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Atty.-Gen.-Brown-letter-2-22-2023.pdf.
[16] Matt Bush, Maryland Lawmakers Consider Bill Allowing Child Sex Abuse Victims to Sue at Any Age and Any Time, WYPR (Feb. 27, 2023, 5:00 AM), https://www.wypr.org/wypr-news/2023-02-27/maryland-lawmakers-consider-bill-allowing-child-sex-abuse-victims-to-sue-at-any-age-and-any-time.
[17] Id.
[18] Tim Prudente, Julie Scharper, Dylan Segelbaum & Liz Bowie, Baltimore Judge Orders Release of Redacted Investigation into Archdiocese of Baltimore Sex Abuse, The Balt. Banner (Feb. 24, 2023, 12:06 PM), https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/religion/archdiocese-of-baltimore-sex-abuse-investigation-PZJUPJMMVJFZHI5I2C6FAPU2YQ/.
[19] Md. Coal. Against Sexual Assault, Incidents of Child Sexual Abuse in Maryland (Dec. 2021), https://mcasa.org/assets/files/Incidence_of_CSA_Fact_Sheet_2021.12.pdf.
[20] Recovering from Sexual Assault, UCI Care: Campus Assault Res. and Educ., https://care.uci.edu/topics/recovery.html (last visited Apr. 7, 2023).
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