It’s not often that state supreme courts reverse their own rulings. However, that’s what happened this summer. The Louisiana Supreme Court voted 5 to 2 to vacate a decision it handed down just months earlier involving adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
In their March decision, the high court ruled that Louisiana’s “look-back” law, which is only a few years old, was unconstitutional because it violated defendants’ rights to due process. The law allows these survivors a window in which they could take civil legal action against their alleged abusers outside the usual statute of limitations. They could also sue organizations they held responsible for allowing the abuse to continue.
That window was set to expire this June. However, just prior to the scheduled expiration, the state legislature extended it three more years, to June of 2027.
Lawsuits and investigations into Louisiana dioceses continue
The original 4-3 high court ruling against the law was met with an outcry from survivors and their advocates, which prompted the Louisiana attorney general to seek a rehearing. That case involved a lawsuit against the Diocese of Lafayette by several former altar servers involving alleged abuse in the 1970s by a priest who has since passed away.
The Catholic Church has been among the highest-profile defendants in these cases. Multiple Catholic dioceses throughout Louisiana have settled lawsuits. Large-scale investigations are continuing.
State has a “legitimate interest in protecting its citizens”
In writing the opinion that reversed the earlier decision, the chief justice noted, “Louisiana’s legitimate interest in protecting its citizens who were sexually abused as minors and in providing them with the ability to seek redress in the courts….”
With this latest court decision and the change in the law, childhood sexual abuse survivors must understand their right to take civil legal action against their abusers and those who enabled or protected them. Getting experienced guidance as soon as possible will help you assert your rights and work to seek some form of justice.