[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4526 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4526

   To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States to establish a 
  Federal civil right requiring that State laws, and the laws of the 
  District of Columbia, relating to physical assault, sexual assault, 
 sexual abuse, and sexual harassment be enforced without regard to the 
                           age of the victim.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 1994

  Mr. Nadler introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Revised Statutes of the United States to establish a 
  Federal civil right requiring that State laws, and the laws of the 
  District of Columbia, relating to physical assault, sexual assault, 
 sexual abuse, and sexual harassment be enforced without regard to the 
                           age of the victim.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Children's Equal Protection Act of 
1994''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Complaints of assault or abuse of children raised 
        during custody proceedings or under other circumstances are 
        often not pursued through criminal investigation and 
        prosecution in the same manner and with the same vigor that 
        similar complaints against adult victims are pursued.
            (2) Complaints are often adjudicated in family courts ill-
        equipped to, or jurisdictionally prohibited from, investigating 
        criminal matters.
            (3) The failure by States, territories, and the District of 
        Columbia to bring their full criminal investigatory and 
        prosecutorial skills to bear regarding such complaints 
        regarding alleged child victims places these alleged child 
        victims at risk of further harm.
            (4) Children are a discrete and insular minority, within 
        the Supreme Court's understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment 
        to the Constitution of the United States.
            (5) Because of such status, children have been deprived of 
        equal and adequate enforcement of the laws, and particularly 
        those criminal laws prohibiting assault, battery, and torture.
            (6) It would be a violation of the alleged child victims' 
        right to equal protection of law if enforcement actions are 
        brought to bear regarding alleged adult victims but not brought 
        to bear regarding child victims.

SEC. 3. RIGHT TO PROTECTION; DUTY TO INTERVENE.

    The Revised Statutes of the United States are amended by inserting 
after section 1979 the following:

SEC. 1979A. RIGHT TO PROTECTION; DUTY TO INTERVENE.

    ``(a) Where the statutes, ordinances, regulations, custom, or usage 
of any State or territory or the District of Columbia provide for 
investigation and, where warranted, criminal prosecution in response to 
complaints of physical assault, sexual assault, sexual abuse, or sexual 
harassment of citizens or other persons within the jurisdiction 
thereof, these ordinances, regulations, customs, and usage shall be 
applied without regard to the age of the victim.
    ``(b) Neither the investigation and determination of facts for the 
purpose of awarding guardianship for or custody of a minor, nor the act 
of awarding such guardianship or custody shall relieve any State or 
territory or the District of Columbia of the duty to investigate and 
criminally prosecute valid complaints against child victims in the same 
vigorous and timely manner as complaints against adult victims.
    ``(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the 
public disclosure of any victim's identity. To the contrary, to the 
maximum extent possible, the identity of all child victims shall be 
protected in any investigation and prosecution.
    ``(d) Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, 
regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or territory or the District 
of Columbia, fails to provide the affirmative protection or 
intervention required pursuant to subsection (a) to a citizen of the 
United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof shall be 
liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or 
other proper proceeding for redress. Such protection and intervention 
as required by law shall not be limited to those cases in which the 
injured party is in the physical or constructive custody of such 
person.
    ``(e) The failure of a State, county, locality, or the District of 
Columbia to comply with this section shall act as an absolute 
disability to receipt of Federal grants for law-enforcement purposes as 
otherwise provided for in such laws as Congress may from time to time 
enact.

``SEC. 1979B. RELIEF.

    ``An injured party under section 1979A may apply to the court for 
such relief as the court may grant in its discretion. Such relief may 
include injunctive relief, restraining orders, and monetary damages. 
Such relief may not include punitive damages. Granting of such relief 
as the court may grant does not preclude criminal prosecution under the 
laws of a State or the United States. Judgment entered on such action 
may be considered by the Department of Justice in its determination of 
whether a State, locality, or the District of Columbia has met the 
requirements of section 1979A.

``SEC. 1979C. ABSTENTION; DENOVO REVIEW.

    ``The court may not abstain from hearing a case under section 1979B 
until the completion of State court proceedings or exhaustion of State 
remedies unless the defendant demonstrate by clear and convincing 
evidence that delay of Federal proceedings will not endanger the 
injured party or deprive such party of the protection which is the 
subject of the proceeding. In making any determination in a proceeding 
under this section, the court may, in its discretion, review all 
factual issues de novo, and shall not be limited by doctrines of res 
judicata or collateral estoppel, except that a final criminal 
conviction in a State or Federal court after a fully-litigated trial 
shall estop any review of the act or acts underlying such conviction.

``SEC. 1979D. WHO MAY BRING.

    ``An action under section 1979B may be brought by the injured 
party, a guardian ad litem, a class of affected individuals, the 
Attorney General of the United States, or the attorney general of a 
State, commonwealth, territory. A refusal by such attorneys general to 
prosecute shall not act as a bar to private action.

``SEC. 1979E. COSTS.

    ``In any action under section 1979B, the court, in its discretion, 
may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States or a 
State, territory or jurisdiction, a reasonable attorney's fee.''.

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