A Tennessee court has ruled that nondisclosure agreements in legal settlement are unenforceable in child sexual abuse cases, upholding a 2018 state law that said the same.
Video screenshot via Treyslaw.org
A Williamson County court judge found that the 2018 law prohibiting NDAs in child sexual abuse cases is valid and applies even to cases that arose before the law was passed.
The Tennessee case stems from a lawsuit settled in 2016 involving the alleged abuse of a toddler by a volunteer at Fellowship Bible Church, according to The Tennessean. Until now, the NDA signed as part of the settlement had prevented the family from speaking out about the alleged abuse.
“Survivors of sexual assault should not be silenced,” said Stefan Turkheimer with the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN). “It pushes abuse into the shadows, where it’s harder to heal and recover. The only one who benefits from silence is the perpetrator.”
Laws similar to Tennessee’s 2018 measure are increasingly being passed across the country.
Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, whose brother Trey Carlock died by suicide after being abused for a decade by Peter Newman at Kanakuk Kamps, has been working to persuade state legislatures and the U.S. Congress to pass similar measures.
As part of a settlement agreement with Kanakuk, Carlock signed a restrictive NDA that he believed “coerced” him into silence. “They will always control me,” he told a therapist before he died by suicide in 2019 at age 28.
Legislative progress to ban NDAs in child sexual abuse cases is tracked at TreysLaw.org. The group’s mission states: “Through advocacy, education, and legislative action, we’re working to expand Trey’s Law in every state — ensuring survivors have the freedom to share their own stories, hold bad actors accountable, and prevent further harm.”
The movement has drawn bipartisan support at the federal level. Senate Bill 3966, authored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent and has been sent to the House of Representatives. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was a co-author.
The bill would make NDAs void and unenforceable when they prohibit a victim of child sexual abuse from disclosing the abuse or facts related to the act.
Cruz noted the bill establishes a baseline for NDA use but does not prevent states from enacting more restrictive laws. He also said the bill allows victims who want confidentiality to preserve it.
So far this year, three more state legislatures — Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia — have passed measures making NDAs in child sexual abuse cases unenforceable.
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On Alabama’s bill, Phillips said: “By removing this barrier to truth and transparency, we are ensuring that a sexual abuse victimʼs healing, freedom of speech, and general public safety are a priority over protecting predators and the institutions that harbor them.”
Several other states have similar bills filed but did not act on them before their legislative sessions ended. Those states include Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Oklahoma.
Oklahoma’s inaction may be one of the more surprising developments, given that Gateway Church founding pastor Robert Morris was charged by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond with lewd or indecent acts with a child. The charges stemmed from allegations brought by Cindy Clemishire in 2024 claiming Morris abused her decades ago starting when she was just 12 years old.
Morris pleaded guilty, served six months in the Osage County Jail and will serve 9.5 years of probation, register as a sex offender, and pay $250,000 in restitution to Clemishire.
Two additional bills – one in Illinois and one in Ohio — have been referred to committees, with no further action taken on either.
In 2025, Missouri and Texas, Carlock’s home state, passed versions of Trey’s Law.
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