I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2120 

To encourage States to expand the protections offered to victims of sex 

offenses who are not in a familiar or dating relationship with the perpetrators of such offenses. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 29, 2015 

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey introduced the following bill; which was referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To encourage States to expand the protections offered to 

victims of sex offenses who are not in a familiar or 

dating relationship with the perpetrators of such offenses. 

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 ‘‘Nicole’s Law of 2015’’. 

5 SEC. 2. PROTECTION FOR VICTIMS OF SEX OFFENSES. 

6 (a) IN GENERAL.—For each fiscal year beginning 

7 after the expiration of the period specified in subsection 

8 (b)(1) in which a State receives funds under the subpart 


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1 referred to in subsection (b)(2), the State shall have in 

2 effect throughout the State laws and policies that ensure 

3 that, with respect to criminal cases involving sex offenses 

4 (as defined by the State), protections similar to those of5 fered to victims of domestic violence are extended to vic6 tims of sex offenses who are not in a familiar or dating 

7 relationship with the perpetrators of such offenses. To 

8 demonstrate compliance with the preceding sentence, a 

9 State shall have in effect laws and policies that— 

10 (1) expressly authorize judges and courts to 

11 issue, as a condition of bail, protection orders that 

12 prohibit a defendant charged with a sex offense from 

13 having any contact with the victim or with the vic14 tim’s friends, co-workers, or relatives; 

15 (2) permit judges and courts, after finding a 

16 defendant guilty of a sex offense, to order a continu17 ation of a protection order described in paragraph 

18 (1), or to otherwise restrict a defendant’s contact 

19 with the victim, as a condition of bail, parole, proba20 tion, or other supervised release; and 

21 (3) provide judges and courts with the author22 ity to grant or extend a protection order until fur23 ther order of a judge or court, as an alternative to 

24 issuing protection orders that expire on a specific 


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1 date or upon termination of a sentence or period of 

2 supervised release. 

3 (b) COMPLIANCE AND INELIGIBILITY.— 

4 (1) COMPLIANCE DATE.—Each State shall have 

5 not more than one year from the date of enactment 

6 of this Act in which to fully implement this section, 

7 except that the Attorney General may grant an addi8 tional one year to a State that is making good faith 

9 efforts to implement this section. 

10 (2) INELIGIBILITY FOR FUNDS.—For any fiscal 

11 year after the expiration of the period specified in 

12 paragraph (1), a State that fails to fully implement 

13 this section, as determined by the Attorney General, 

14 shall not receive 10 percent of the funds that would 

15 otherwise be allocated for that fiscal year to the 

16 State under subpart 1 of part E of title I of the Om17 nibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 

18 (42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq.). 

19 (c) REALLOCATION.—Amounts not allocated under 

20 the subpart referred to in subsection (b)(2) to a State for 

21 failure to fully implement this section shall be reallocated 

22 under that subpart to States that have not failed to fully 

23 implement this section. 

24 (d) DEFINITION OF STATE.—In this section, The 

25 term ‘‘State’’ includes each of the several States, the DisVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:00 May 08, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2120.IH H2120

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1 trict of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or 

2 possession of the United States. 

Æ 


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