Crime victims can sue the state for leaking their private facts.
S. 4977 — REDACT Act · Filed by Cory Booker (D-NJ) · Introduced Jul 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets crime victims sue the state if it leaks their private facts by mistake. Victims can get at least $50,000 each time this happens. They can also get money for real harm and lawyer fees. The state normally cannot be sued, but this bill stops that. Victims have five years to file a lawsuit.
Who it affects
Crime victims and their representatives are affected. The state must protect private facts when it shares papers.
One thing to notice
The bill sets a minimum payment of $50,000 per leak. This may push the state to hide private facts more carefully before sharing papers.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 14, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- private facts — Secret information about a person, like their name, home, or health.
- leak — To release or share information that should have stayed hidden.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,694 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Crime victims can sue the state for leaking their private facts.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4977/simple Report an error