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Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S1451
Title of bill
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to a private right of action for the intentional disclosure of the identity of a victim of a sex crime
Summary of provisions
Section one of the bill amends §50-b of the Civil Rights Law to allow for release of certain documents where they are sufficiently redacted to prevent identification of a victim of a sexual offense.
section two of the bill amends §50-C of the Civil Rights Law to clarify who has a cause of action when the victim's identity is intentionally disclosed in violation of the Civil Rights Law.
Section 3 is the enacting provision.
Justification
During the 1991 legislative session, §50-b of the Civil Rights Law was amended and a new §50-C was added. Section 50-b had protected against the disclosure of the identity of the victim of a sex offense who had been under the age of eighteen at the time of the alleged commission of the offense. As amended, §50-b pertains to all victims of sex offenses, irrespective of age.
The intent of §50-b is obvious - that the government should not permit disclosures of records that would identify victims of sex offenses. Nevertheless, the language of §50-b is so broad that any record containing the name or other identifier pertaining to a victim must be withheld see Fappiano v. New York City Police Department, 95 NY2d 738, (2001).
As a consequence, while victims' identities have been protected, so have the identities of defendants. While §50-b is clearly well-intentioned, it should not be used as a shield against disclosure of all information relating to the alleged commission of a sex offense and it certainly should not be used to protect defendants.
Due to the breadth and vagueness of the current statute, public officials have been reluctant to disclose any information concerning sex offenses for fear of litigation. To reduce the chilling effect of the statute it requires further clarification.
Prior legislative history
2005-06: S.4907-A Senate Codes Cmte./A.10614 Assembly Governmental Operations Cmte. 2007-08: S.892 Senate Codes Cmte./A.4610 Assembly Governmental Operations Cmte. 2009-10: S.1686 Reported and Committed to Codes/A.2911 Governmental Operations Cmte. 2011-12: S.2482 Senate Codes
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.