CNA Staff, May 14, 2020 / 11:01 am
A judge ruled Wednesday that New York's Child Victims Act is constitutional, rejecting a suit filed by the Diocese of Rockville Centre that claimed the law is barred by the due process clause in the state constitution.
The act opened a one-year window for adults in the state who were sexually abused as children to file lawsuits against their abusers. It also adjusted the statute of limitations for both pursuing criminal charges and civil suits against sexual abusers or institutions where the abuse took place.
"The court finds the Child Victims Act is a reasonable response to remedy the injustice of past child sexual abuse," Justice Steven Jaeger of the New York Supreme Court in Nassau County wrote in his May 13 decision. "Accordingly, it does not violate defendant diocese's right to due process under the New York State Constitution."
Newsday, a Long Island daily, reported that Jaeger "said New York courts have upheld suspensions of time limitations as a remedy in extraordinary cases," and on this basis he held the law to be a reasonable response.