No Contract Should Buy a Predator’s Silence

An institution facing a sexual abuse allegation settles quietly and writes a nondisclosure clause into the paperwork, one that keeps the survivor from ever speaking about what happened. That’s been legal in Texas. SB835, Trey’s Law, ends it.

Signed June 20, 2025, effective September 1, 2025, SB835 passed the Senate 31-0 and the House 144-0.

Any part of an employment agreement, settlement agreement, or any other contract that would stop someone from disclosing an act of sexual abuse, or facts related to it, is now void as against Texas public policy. The bill still protects other legitimate confidentiality terms, like the actual dollar amount of a settlement. It only strips enforceability from the specific clause trying to hide the abuse itself.

The law applies to agreements signed before this bill’s effective date too. Someone trying to enforce an old silencing clause against a person who spoke out first has to get a final, unappealable court judgment confirming that specific provision is actually enforceable, a high bar that makes old silencing clauses very difficult to use going forward, without simply nullifying every existing contract overnight.

Courts have long recognized that contracts shielding ongoing harm to third parties, especially children, or obstructing disclosure of criminal conduct, run against public policy. This bill codifies that principle specifically for sexual abuse. It removes a private contractual restriction on speech rather than creating a new government one, and the declaratory-judgment requirement for pre-existing agreements gives courts a real chance to weigh the specific facts rather than voiding everything by fiat.

Faith-based organizations aren’t exempt. Any religious institution that has used or might use an NDA to keep abuse allegations confidential loses that contractual shield too, which reinforces rather than conflicts with the conviction that abuse of the vulnerable belongs in the light, not buried in a settlement drawer.

A unanimous, morally clear bill that stops institutions from using contracts to silence sexual abuse survivors, while still protecting legitimate settlement terms. Support it.

This is our read of the bill. We encourage you to read it yourself and reach your own conclusions.