II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1986 

To amend the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to extend the jurisdiction 

of tribal courts to cover crimes involving sexual violence, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 19, 2017 

Mr. FRANKEN (for himself, Ms. MURKOWSKI, and Mr. UDALL) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 to extend 

the jurisdiction of tribal courts to cover crimes involving 

sexual violence, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Justice for Native Sur5 vivors of Sexual Violence Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. TRIBAL JURISDICTION OVER CRIMES OF DOMES2 TIC, DATING, OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SEX 

3 TRAFFICKING, OR STALKING. 

4 Section 204 of Public Law 90–284 (25 U.S.C. 1304) 

5 (commonly known as the ‘‘Indian Civil Rights Act of 

6 1968’’) is amended— 

7 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘DO8 MESTIC VIOLENCE’’ and inserting ‘‘DOMESTIC, 

9 DATING, OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SEX TRAF10 FICKING, OR STALKING’’; 

11 (2) in subsection (a)— 

12 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘means 

13 violence’’ and inserting ‘‘includes any felony or 

14 misdemeanor violation of the criminal law of 

15 the Indian tribe that has jurisdiction over the 

16 Indian country where the violation occurs that 

17 is’’; 

18 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

19 (i) by striking ‘‘means violence’’ and 

20 inserting ‘‘includes any felony or mis21 demeanor violation of the criminal law of 

22 the Indian tribe that has jurisdiction over 

23 the Indian country where the violation oc24 curs that is’’; and 

25 (ii) by striking ‘‘an Indian tribe that 

26 has jurisdiction over the Indian country 


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1 where the violence occurs’’ and inserting 

2 ‘‘that Indian tribe’’; 

3 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘domes4 tic violence’’ and inserting ‘‘tribal’’; 

5 (D) by redesignating paragraphs (6) and 

6 (7) as paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively; 

7 (E) by inserting after paragraph (5) the 

8 following: 

9 ‘‘(6) RELATED CONDUCT.—The term ‘related 

10 conduct’ means conduct alleged to have been com11 mitted by a defendant that— 

12 ‘‘(A) is a violation of the criminal law or 

13 contempt authority of the tribal court of the In14 dian tribe that has jurisdiction over the Indian 

15 country where the underlying offense occurred; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(B) occurs in connection with the exercise 

18 of special tribal criminal jurisdiction by that In19 dian tribe. 

20 ‘‘(7) SEX TRAFFICKING.— 

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘sex traf22 ficking’ means conduct— 

23 ‘‘(i) consisting of— 

24 ‘‘(I) recruiting, enticing, har25 boring, transporting, providing, obVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:55 Oct 20, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1986.IS S1986

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1 taining, advertising, maintaining, pa2 tronizing, or soliciting by any means a 

3 person; or 

4 ‘‘(II) benefiting, financially or by 

5 receiving anything of value, from par6 ticipation in a venture that has en7 gaged in an act described in subclause 

8 (I); and 

9 ‘‘(ii) carried out with the knowledge, 

10 or, except where the act constituting the 

11 violation of clause (i) is advertising, in 

12 reckless disregard of the fact, that— 

13 ‘‘(I) means of force, threats of 

14 force, fraud, coercion, or any combina15 tion of such means will be used to 

16 cause the person to engage in a com17 mercial sex act; or 

18 ‘‘(II) the person has not attained 

19 the age of 18 years and will be caused 

20 to engage in a commercial sex act. 

21 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph, 

22 the terms ‘coercion’ and ‘commercial sex act’ 

23 have the meanings given the terms in section 

24 1591(e) of title 18, United States Code. 


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1 ‘‘(8) SEXUAL VIOLENCE.—The term ‘sexual vio2 lence’ means any nonconsensual sexual act or con3 tact proscribed by Federal, tribal, or State law, in4 cluding in any case in which the victim lacks the ca5 pacity to consent to the act.’’; 

6 (F) in paragraph (9) (as redesignated by 

7 subparagraph (D))— 

8 (i) in the paragraph heading, by strik9 ing ‘‘DOMESTIC VIOLENCE’’ and inserting 

10 ‘‘TRIBAL’’; and 

11 (ii) by striking ‘‘domestic violence’’ 

12 and inserting ‘‘tribal’’; and 

13 (G) by adding at the end the following: 

14 ‘‘(11) STALKING.—The term ‘stalking’ means 

15 engaging in a course of conduct directed at a spe16 cific person that would cause a reasonable person— 

17 ‘‘(A) to fear for his or her safety or the 

18 safety of others; or 

19 ‘‘(B) to suffer substantial emotional dis20 tress.’’; 

21 (3) in subsection (b)— 

22 (A) by striking ‘‘domestic violence’’ each 

23 place the term appears and inserting ‘‘tribal’’; 

24 and 

25 (B) in paragraph (4)— 


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1 (i) by striking subparagraph (B); 

2 (ii) by striking the paragraph designa3 tion and heading and all that follows 

4 through ‘‘A participating’’ in clause (i) of 

5 subparagraph (A) and inserting the fol6 lowing: 

7 ‘‘(4) EXCEPTION FOR NON-INDIAN VICTIM AND

8 DEFENDANT.— 

9 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A participating’’; and 

10 (iii) by striking ‘‘(ii) DEFINITION OF

11 VICTIM.—In this subparagraph’’ and in12 serting the following: 

13 ‘‘(B) DEFINITION OF VICTIM.—In this 

14 paragraph’’; 

15 (4) in subsection (c)— 

16 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 

17 by striking ‘‘domestic violence’’ and inserting 

18 ‘‘tribal’’; 

19 (B) in paragraph (1)— 

20 (i) in the paragraph heading, by strik21 ing ‘‘VIOLENCE AND DATING’’ and insert22 ing ‘‘, DATING, AND SEXUAL’’; and 

23 (ii) by striking ‘‘or dating violence’’ 

24 and inserting ‘‘, dating violence, or sexual 

25 violence’’; and 


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1 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

2 ‘‘(3) STALKING.—An act of stalking that occurs 

3 in the Indian country of the participating tribe. 

4 ‘‘(4) SEX TRAFFICKING.—An act of sex traf5 ficking that occurs in the Indian country of the par6 ticipating tribe. 

7 ‘‘(5) RELATED CONDUCT.—An act of related 

8 conduct that occurs in the Indian country of the 

9 participating tribe.’’; 

10 (5) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘domestic vio11 lence’’ each place the term appears and inserting 

12 ‘‘tribal’’; and 

13 (6) in subsection (f)— 

14 (A) by striking ‘‘special domestic violence’’ 

15 each place the term appears and inserting ‘‘spe16 cial tribal’’; 

17 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘pros18 ecutes’’ and all that follows through the semi19 colon at the end and inserting the following: 

20 ‘‘prosecutes— 

21 ‘‘(A) a crime of domestic violence; 

22 ‘‘(B) a crime of dating violence; 

23 ‘‘(C) a crime of sexual violence; 

24 ‘‘(D) a criminal violation of a protection 

25 order; 


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1 ‘‘(E) a crime of stalking; 

2 ‘‘(F) a crime of sex trafficking; or 

3 ‘‘(G) a crime of related conduct;’’; and 

4 (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘sexual 

5 violence, stalking, sex trafficking,’’ after ‘‘dat6 ing violence,’’. 

Æ 


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