I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1204
To authorize a civil right of action for individuals affected by video voyeurism,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Ms. M
ACEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary
A BILL
To authorize a civil right of action for individuals affected
by video voyeurism, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sue Victimizers and 4
Offenders who Yield Explicit Unconsented Recordings 5
Surreptitiously Act’’ or the ‘‘Sue VOYEURS Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. INTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTIONS. 7
Title XIII of division W of the Consolidated Appro-8
priations Act, 2022, is amended by inserting after section 9
1309 the following: 10
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‘‘SEC. 1309A. CIVIL ACTION RELATING TO CAPTURE OF IN-1
TIMATE IMAGES. 2
‘‘(a) C
IVILACTION.— 3
‘‘(1) R
IGHT OF ACTION.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 5
paragraph (3), an individual whose intimate vis-6
ual depiction is captured, in a circumstance de-7
scribed in paragraph (4), without the consent of 8
the individual, where such capture is done by a 9
person who knows that, or recklessly disregards 10
whether, the individual has not consented to the 11
capture, and does so under circumstances in 12
which the individual has a reasonable expecta-13
tion of privacy, may bring a civil action against 14
that person in an appropriate district court of 15
the United States for relief as set forth in para-16
graph (2). 17
‘‘(B) R
IGHTS ON BEHALF OF CERTAIN IN -18
DIVIDUALS.—In the case of an individual who is 19
under 18 years of age, incompetent, incapaci-20
tated, or deceased, the legal guardian of the in-21
dividual or representative of the individual’s es-22
tate, another family member, or any other per-23
son appointed as suitable by the court, may as-24
sume the individual’s rights under this section, 25
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but in no event shall the defendant be named 1
as such representative or guardian. 2
‘‘(2) R
ELIEF.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In a civil action filed 4
under this section— 5
‘‘(i) an individual may recover the ac-6
tual damages sustained by the individual 7
or liquidated damages in the amount of 8
$150,000 for each intimate visual depiction 9
captured of the individual, and the cost of 10
the action, including reasonable attorney’s 11
fees and other litigation costs reasonably 12
incurred; and 13
‘‘(ii) the court may, in addition to any 14
other relief available at law, order equi-15
table relief, including a temporary restrain-16
ing order, a preliminary injunction, or a 17
permanent injunction ordering the defend-18
ant to cease display or disclosure of the 19
visual depiction. 20
‘‘(B) P
RESERVATION OF ANONYMITY .—In 21
ordering relief under subparagraph (A), the 22
court may grant injunctive relief maintaining 23
the confidentiality of a plaintiff using a pseu-24
donym. 25
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‘‘(3) EXCEPTION.—An individual may not bring 1
an action for relief under this section relating to the 2
actions of a law enforcement officer or agency, con-3
ducting surveillance pursuant to a lawfully issued 4
warrant. 5
‘‘(4) C
IRCUMSTANCE DESCRIBED .—For the 6
purposes of paragraph (1), the circumstances de-7
scribed in this paragraph are that— 8
‘‘(A) the individual traveled in interstate or 9
foreign commerce, or traveled using a means, 10
channel, facility, or instrumentality of interstate 11
or foreign commerce, in furtherance of or in 12
connection with the conduct described in para-13
graph (1); 14
‘‘(B) the individual used a means, channel, 15
facility, or instrumentality of interstate or for-16
eign commerce in furtherance of or in connec-17
tion with the conduct described in paragraph 18
(1); 19
‘‘(C) any payment of any kind was made, 20
directly or indirectly, in furtherance of or in 21
connection with the conduct described in para-22
graph (1) using any means, channel, facility, or 23
instrumentality of interstate or foreign com-24
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merce or in or affecting interstate or foreign 1
commerce; 2
‘‘(D) the individual transmitted in inter-3
state or foreign commerce any communication 4
relating to or in furtherance of the conduct de-5
scribed in paragraph (1) using any means, 6
channel, facility, or instrumentality of interstate 7
or foreign commerce or in or affecting inter-8
state or foreign commerce by any means or in 9
manner, including by computer, mail, wire, or 10
electromagnetic transmission; 11
‘‘(E) any equipment, item, or other object 12
that has traveled in interstate or foreign com-13
merce was used to perform the conduct de-14
scribed in paragraph (1); 15
‘‘(F) the conduct described in paragraph 16
(1) occurred within the special maritime and 17
territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or 18
any territory or possession of the United States; 19
or 20
‘‘(G) the conduct described in paragraph 21
(1) otherwise occurred in or affected interstate 22
or foreign commerce. 23
‘‘(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 24
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‘‘(1) BROADCAST.—The term ‘broadcast’ means 1
to electronically transmit a visual image with the in-2
tent that it be viewed by a person or persons. 3
‘‘(2) C
APTURE.—The term ‘capture’, with re-4
spect to an image, means to videotape, photograph, 5
film, record by any means, or broadcast. 6
‘‘(3) C
ONSENT.—The term ‘consent’ means an 7
affirmative, conscious, competent, and voluntary au-8
thorization made by the individual free from force, 9
fraud, misrepresentation, or coercion. 10
‘‘(4) I
NTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTION .—The term 11
‘intimate visual depiction’— 12
‘‘(A) means a visual depiction, as that 13
term is defined in section 2256(5) of title 18, 14
United States Code, that depicts— 15
‘‘(i) the naked or undergarment clad 16
private area of an individual; or 17
‘‘(ii) the display or transfer of bodily 18
sexual fluids— 19
‘‘(I) on to any part of the body 20
of an individual; 21
‘‘(II) from the body of an indi-22
vidual; or 23
‘‘(iii) an individual engaging in sexu-24
ally explicit conduct; and 25
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‘‘(B) includes any visual depictions de-1
scribed in subparagraph (A) produced while the 2
individual was in a public place only if the indi-3
vidual did not— 4
‘‘(i) voluntarily display the content de-5
picted; or 6
‘‘(ii) consent to the sexual conduct de-7
picted; 8
‘‘(5) P
RIVATE AREA.—The term ‘private area’ 9
means, with respect to an individual, the genitals, 10
pubic area, anus, buttocks, or female nipple of that 11
individual. 12
‘‘(6) S
EXUALLY EXPLICIT CONDUCT .—The term 13
‘sexually explicit conduct’ has the meaning given to 14
the term in subparagraph (A) of section 2256(2) of 15
title 18, United States Code. 16
‘‘(7) U
NDER CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH THAT 17
INDIVIDUAL HAS A REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF 18
PRIVACY.—The term ‘under circumstances in which 19
that individual has a reasonable expectation of pri-20
vacy’ means— 21
‘‘(A) circumstances in which a reasonable 22
person would believe that he or she could dis-23
robe in privacy, without being concerned that 24
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an image of a private area of the individual was 1
being captured; or 2
‘‘(B) circumstances in which a reasonable 3
person would believe that a private area of the 4
individual would not be visible to the public, re-5
gardless of whether that person is in a public 6
or private place.’’. 7
Æ
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