Sponsors (22)
Official title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide for the issuance of natural lifetime injunctions for certain victims.
Introduced April 23, 2026 by Abraham J. Hamadeh · Last progress April 23, 2026
The bill strengthens and funding‑free lifetime protections for victims by giving courts clear contempt remedies, but does so through broad, long‑lasting contact bans that raise significant free‑speech, due‑process, rehabilitation, and government‑resource concerns.
Crime victims — particularly survivors of sexual and violent offenses, including many women and children/youth — gain court-enforceable lifetime protection from unwanted contact by the convicted offender.
Victims can obtain these protective orders without paying fees, removing a financial barrier that would otherwise limit access to protection for low‑income survivors.
Federal courts have clear statutory authority to treat violations of the contact prohibition as contempt, giving law enforcement and courts a legal mechanism to punish and deter prohibited contact.
People convicted of covered offenses (including some federal employees) face lifetime, broad limits on communication and association that may be very difficult to modify, constraining rehabilitation, employment, and reintegration.
The bill's broad definition of “contact” risks criminalizing indirect or automated interactions (social media posts, intermediaries, third parties), creating free‑speech and due‑process risks for defendants and bystanders.
The narrow pathway to terminate or modify the restriction could leave people whose convictions are reversed, vacated, or substantially changed trapped under lifelong contact bans unless they litigate to restore rights.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows federal courts at sentencing to impose lifetime no‑contact orders prohibiting convicted defendants from contacting victims for specified violent and sexual federal felonies, enforceable as contempt.
Creates a new federal sentencing tool that lets judges issue lifetime orders barring convicted defendants from contacting victims for specified violent and sexual federal felonies. Orders can be requested by prosecutors with victim consent or directly by victims, remain in effect for life, and violations are punishable as contempt of court. Sets narrow rules for ending or suspending an order: only the victim or defendant may move to terminate or suspend, and the court must hold a hearing and may consider evidence before ruling. The measure defines covered offenses and broadly defines prohibited "contact" to include direct, indirect, electronic, and third‑party communications; it also forbids charging victims fees to obtain an order.