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Senate GOP won’t fast-track child sex abuse lawsuit ‘window’

  • Mark Scolforo/The Associated Press
  • Marc Levy/The Associated Press
Sisters Patty Fortney-Julius, Lara Fortney McKeever, second from left, Teresa Forteny-Miller, second from right, and Carolyn Fortney sit behind pictures of themselves as children as they listen to an attorney speak to reporters during a news conference in Newark, N.J., Monday, Dec. 2, 2019. Two of the sisters from Pennsylvania, Patty and Lara, are suing the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They allege clergy in Newark knew a priest had sexually abused children before he moved to Harrisburg and abused them and their sisters for years. Lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy are taking center stage in New Jersey as the state's relaxation of statute of limitations rules takes effect.

 Seth Wenig / AP Photo

Sisters Patty Fortney-Julius, Lara Fortney McKeever, second from left, Teresa Forteny-Miller, second from right, and Carolyn Fortney sit behind pictures of themselves as children as they listen to an attorney speak to reporters during a news conference in Newark, N.J., Monday, Dec. 2, 2019. Two of the sisters from Pennsylvania, Patty and Lara, are suing the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They allege clergy in Newark knew a priest had sexually abused children before he moved to Harrisburg and abused them and their sisters for years. Lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy are taking center stage in New Jersey as the state's relaxation of statute of limitations rules takes effect.

(Harrisburg) — Majority Republicans in the state Senate announced Monday they will not employ a rarely used emergency process to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window in which to file civil lawsuits.

Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward issued a statement that said the matter “does not meet the emergency status criteria and does not correct the failure by the Wolf Administration as it still does not properly vet this matter with the public.”

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s Department of State failed to make the required public advertisements last year of a conventional constitutional amendment, leaving lawmakers a choice between starting the process over or using the emergency amendment process. Ward said lawmakers will start over.

“The dereliction of duty by the Wolf administration has forced the Pennsylvania Senate to reset the clock on the constitutional amendment,” said Ward, R-Westmoreland. “The Pennsylvania Senate will act in the same manner as it has previously and in accordance with the Commonwealth’s constitution and will seek to pass another constitutional amendment.”

The emergency amendment proposal became an option after Wolf’s administration revealed six weeks ago it had committed a massive mistake and failed to arrange the mandatory advertisement.

That scuttled plans to approve a proposed state constitutional amendment allowing lawsuits over decades-old claims — prompted by investigations into child sexual abuse allegations inside Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic diocese — to appear on the May 18 primary ballot for voters to consider.

Ward’s statement emerged in the days after lawmakers acknowledged they support was lacking for an emergency amendment.

Marc Levy / AP Photo

FILE PHOTO: Survivors of child sexual abuse hug in the Pennsylvania Capitol while awaiting legislation to respond to a landmark state grand jury report on child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 in Harrisburg, Pa.

The collapse of the emergency amendment process follows years of battles in the Legislature.

The proposed constitutional amendment would give now-adult victims of childhood sexual abuse a two-year reprieve — a so-called window — from time limits in state law that otherwise bar them from suing perpetrators or institutions that may have covered it up.

Many lost the right to sue when they turned 18 or were young adults, depending on state law at the time. Under the proposed amendment, they would have two years to sue over their alleged abuse, no matter how long ago it occurred.

The conventional process of amending the state constitution had made it halfway through the required majority approval by both chambers in two consecutive two-year sessions. Voters have the final say in a referendum, but a referendum on the issue cannot happen now before 2023 without an emergency amendment.

Rather than restart the lengthy procedure, supporters wanted to use the emergency amendment process that has only been employed three times, all involving flooding or storms in the 1970s, according to the Department of State.

Some lawmakers opposed using the emergency process for the child sexual abuse lawsuit window, arguing it would set a bad precedent and the facts did not warrant it.

The Wolf administration’s mishandling of the previous amendment caused Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to resign early last month. She has described it as an administrative error.

Democratic lawmakers, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Gov. Tom Wolf had supported creating a two-year window by carving it into state law.

Senate Republicans, however, blocked that avenue, amid opposition from Roman Catholic bishops and the for-profit insurers, and said that they would instead support a constitutional amendment.

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