Constitutionality of Maryland’s Child Victims Act Being Weighed by State Supreme Court After Oral Arguments

Maryland Child Victims Act constitutionality may hinge on state legislature’s intent when it previously updated the child sexual abuse statute of limitations in 2017.

The highest court in the state of Maryland heard oral arguments on Tuesday over the constitutionality of a recent law that removes statute of limitations from civil child sexual abuse lawsuits, allowing survivors to file claims regardless of how much time has passed.

The Maryland Child Victims Act was passed in April 2023,  just days after a long-awaited Baltimore Archdiocese child sex abuse report was released by the Maryland Attorney General, which detailed information about Catholic priests that abused children in Maryland over the last 60 years, including the names of 146 priests, deacons, seminarians and others who have been credibly accused by more than 300 victims and witnesses who came forward during the investigation.

The state law allows claims to be filed against abusers and institutions that enabled the sexual misconduct, even decades after the acts occurred. The legislation has been hailed as a landmark achievement for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, since many individuals are unable to reach a point where they seek justice until long after the typical statute of limitations has expired.

Maryland lawmakers knew the law would face legal challenges, and included a provision that allowed an interlocutory appeal to be immediately pursued, so that the Maryland Supreme Court could consider the case before any individual lawsuits result in a final judgment.

In May, the Maryland Supreme Court announced it would hear a challenge to the law’s constitutionality that was brought by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and several hours of oral arguments were presented on September 10.

The Mormon church faces a lawsuit filed since the Act was passed, alleging that the church did nothing to stop a minister from sexually assaulting a young girl, even after a probation officer warned the organization that the minister, Frederick Edvalson, should not be left alone with children. Edvalson pled guilty to felony sex charges in 1985 and is now deceased. However, the civil lawsuit filed against the Mormon Church said the organization failed to take minimal steps to keep the girl safe.

Immediately after the lawsuit was filed, the Mormon church challenged the Maryland Child Victim’s Act constitutionality, arguing that the underlying claim should be time-barred, since the removal of the Maryland statute of limitations on child sexual abuse lawsuits violates due process protections.

Intent of Maryland 2017 Child Abuse Law Questioned

Most of the arguments presented this week to the Maryland Supreme Court focused on a 2017 state law, which previously extended the deadline for filing child sexual assault lawsuits in the state until the victim turned 38 years old. Attorneys for the Mormon church argued that law could not be modified to make defendants more vulnerable to liability after-the-fact.

Attorneys representing child abuse victims statewide countered that the Maryland General Assembly never intended the 2017 law to be immutable.

Maryland’s chief supreme court justice, Matthew Fader, reportedly questioned the arguments fielded by those in opposition to the new law, including attorneys for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, asking why, if the state legislature wanted the 2017 law to be unchangeable, lawmakers didn’t make that clear in the law’s language.

It is unclear when the state Supreme Court will issue a ruling, though it is expected to take several months.