Photo: Democratic Sen. Jessie Danielson, left, speaks alongside child abuse advocate Rachael Denhollander at the Colorado Capitol on April 16, 2024. (Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline)
This story by Sara Wilson appeared on Colorado Newsline on April 17, 2024.
Colorado Senate Republicans blocked a measure Wednesday that would have asked voters to allow the Legislature to make a law letting survivors of childhood sexual abuse sue their abusers, even if the incident occurred decades ago and the statute of limitations ran out.
Because it would have sent a constitutional amendment to the ballot, Senate Concurrent Resolution 24-1 required a two-thirds vote to pass. Democrats hold a 23-12 majority in the chamber, so they needed at least one Republican to vote with them to meet the threshold.
That did not happen, and the resolution failed on a party-line vote.
The resolution would have let voters decide whether the Legislature could pass laws allowing victims to bring civil claims against their abusers and the institutions involved, no matter when the abuse happened. The statute of limitations used to be six years after survivors turned 18 — a 2021 law repealed that for current and future cases — but many child sexual abuse survivors wait decades to come to terms with, and reveal, their abuse.
A bipartisan 2021 law tried to give those people a path to justice. It gave victims of sexual assault from as early as the 1960s a window of time to sue their abusers, but the state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional last summer. That pushed Democratic Sens. Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge and Rhonda Fields of Aurora to run the concurrent resolution this year to seek a constitutional amendment, which would have opened the door for the Legislature again to pass legislation similar to the 2021 bill.
“This measure will give the people of Colorado the right to vote on a critical question,” Danielson said ahead of the vote Wednesday. “The fact remains that the Legislature is unable to give child survivors any justice or allow them to hold their predators accountable unless we vote yes today.”
“Colorado’s archaic statute of limitations has ensured that it is cheaper, convenient, easier for corrupt institutions to harbor abusers and silence victims than it is to tell the truth and protect your children. It is ensuring a safe harbor for predators in Colorado,” she said.
Republicans expressed concerns about the constitutionality of a future law that would enable survivors to bring retroactive claims. They also worried that an influx of lawsuits could bankrupt institutions like churches and schools.
“I do not take this vote lightly. In some ways it’s the hardest vote of my legislative career,” Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, said on Tuesday during the initial debate on the resolution. “My heart breaks for those who were so wrongly and horribly injured. And my vote is cast in defense of the Constitution and legal principles each and every one of us, and future generations as well, rely on in protection of our civil society.”
In a statement after the vote, Senate Republicans said they are united against people who commit crimes against children. Lifting the statute of limitations for older crimes, however, “would have upended numerous constitutional and legally settled rights we all depend on, including the principles of legal certainty and reliance, the principle of finality of litigation, and due process.”
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