STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1822--A
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 14, 2025
___________
Introduced by Sen. FERNANDEZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes -- recommitted to
the Committee on Codes in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 --
committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and
recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the penal law and the civil rights law, in relation to
prohibiting speech-based defenses to actions brought against an indi-
vidual for the unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate
image
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 245.15 of the penal law is amended by adding a new
2 subdivision 5 to read as follows:
3 5. It shall not be a defense to any criminal action brought against an
4 individual pursuant to this section that such dissemination or publica-
5 tion of an intimate image is protected by a right to free speech, where
6 the prosecution has established beyond a reasonable doubt that, at the
7 time of dissemination, the defendant knew or should have known that the
8 subject of the image had a reasonable expectation of privacy and did not
9 consent to the release of such image.
10 § 2. Section 52-b of the civil rights law is amended by adding a new
11 subdivision 6-a to read as follows:
12 6-a. It shall not be a defense to any civil action brought against an
13 individual pursuant to this section that such dissemination or publica-
14 tion of an intimate image is protected by a right to free speech, where
15 the plaintiff has established by a preponderance of the evidence that,
16 at the time of dissemination, the defendant knew or should have known
17 that the subject of the image had a reasonable expectation of privacy
18 and did not consent to the release of such image.
19 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01205-03-6
