6. In Wisconsin, too, the battle over child-sex-abuse SOL reform continues, with victims lined up on one side and the Catholic Conference on the other. In 2010, the legislation came closer to passage than at any time in the past. A bipartisan vote sent it out of the Assembly committee, hearings in both Houses went extremely well, and the press coverage was positive. The legislation will be re-introduced.

7. In 2010, Arizona considered child-sex-abuse SOL window legislation for the first time. However, the Catholic Conference lobbied hard, and succeeded in getting the language amended so that the SOL window would have applied only against a "defendant's direct or intentional conduct." In other words, under Arizona's bill, institutional negligence or recklessness in supervising or retaining abusing employees would not have been sufficient to allow a victim to take advantage of the SOL window. This amendment was quite obviously crafted to aid religious and other private institutions in avoiding liability for their actions in covering up the identities of abusing employees, and in creating the conditions for abuse. The watered-down bill died in committee, and tragically, Arizona continues to have one of the most restrictive SOLs for child-sex-abuse victims in the country.

8. The most disreputable 2010 child-sex-abuse SOL legislative "reform" law in the United States was enacted by the South Dakota legislature. For years, Catholic clergy inflicted horrendous abuse against Native American children in St. Joseph Indian School. A defense attorney for the school crafted SOL "reform" that actuallyretracted options the victims otherwise would have had, under prior law. Specifically, the new law prohibits any victim over the age of 40 from suing anyone other than the direct perpetrator. Thus, even if an institution knew an employee was abusing children and did nothing about it, the institution would still be immune under the new law. The new law has shut down many meritorious cases involving Native American victims, and it represents the first instance in which Catholic lobbyists have obtained SOL reform that targets a particular ethnic group.

9. The Ohio Supreme Court turned that state's child-sex-abuse SOL law -- which was already bad for victims — into a law that is truly terrible for victims, by rejecting tolling of the SOL when the victim has repressed the memories of abuse. Several years earlier, the Catholic bishops personally halted window legislation.

10. After earlier extending the SOL to expire only when the child sex abuse victim reaches 48 years of age, Connecticut considered this year whether to add an SOL "window," allowing a limited period of time during which victims whose claims would have been time-barred could still file their complaints. The Catholic Conference killed the bill this time  — on its first time around — but the proponents in Connecticut have not given up. And the public debate in the press has been helpful in outing the bishops' strategies and priorities.

As the developments in these ten states show, efforts to reform child-sex-abuse statutes of limitations and bring justice to victims are very much alive and well in America. Let's hope that in 2011, even more progress is made. When it is, we will know the identities of more perpetrators. Without them, our society continues to give perpetrators easier access to our children. The bills that increase opportunities for child sex abuse victims to go to prosecutors and to sue for damages rightly should be entitled "Expose the Predators and Their Enablers Acts."

*Editor's Note:  This column first appeared on www.findlaw.com

Marci Hamilton, a FindLaw columnist, is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and author of 
Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect its Children by Marci A. Hamilton (Cambridge 2008). A review of Justice Denied appeared on this site on June 25, 2008. Her previous book is 
God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law by Marci A. Hamilton Her email ishamilton02@aol.com .

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