New York City should not be the place where power buys silence. We are supposed to be a city where the doors of justice remain open to everyone, not just the well-connected.
We are supposed to be a city where the doors of justice remain open to everyone, not just the well-connected.
That is why Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of Intro 1297 was so disturbing. It is not just another policy disagreement. It is the only time he rejected a bill that passed the New York City Council unanimously, with zero “no” votes. Every Council district, every borough, every political lane united behind one message – that survivors deserve access to justice.
And the mayor said no, on Christmas Eve.
While families were preparing to gather and so many New Yorkers were trying to find a little peace at the end of a hard year, the former Mayor chose that moment to drop a veto that shuts the courthouse door in the face of survivors. It was an act of cowardice.
Let’s be clear about what this bill is and why the Council amended the law in the first place.
We strengthened the Gender-Motivated Violence Act because survivors and advocates made clear that New Yorkers needed a meaningful path to accountability when gender-based violence occurs, including when other systems fail them. But we also knew something else: a law is only as strong as its ability to stand up in court. If a statute is vulnerable to legal attack, survivors do not get justice. They get delays, dismissals, and another round of harm.
So we did what responsible lawmakers do – we made the law clearer, more workable, and more durable. We tightened language to ensure institutions that enabled sexual violence can be held accountable, and create an 18-month lookback window for victims to bring new claims or revive those dismissed. Our bill removes ambiguity, strengthens enforceability, and protects survivors from watching their cases collapse under technical challenges.
Some of the survivors most harmed by this veto were abused in city-run juvenile facilities, places that were supposed to protect them. Their cases were dismissed not because the harm wasn’t real, but because the law failed to clearly hold institutions accountable.
The former mayor’s veto tries to flip that logic on its head. In former Mayor Adams’ statements on his veto, he’s talked about a law firm, instead of talking about survivors. Instead of focusing on his job, he focused on who might earn fees.
New Yorkers do not elect a mayor to run cover for powerful institutions that fear accountability. We elect a mayor to protect people, stand up for the vulnerable, and do the hard work of governing. When survivors come forward, the proper response is not to sneer about attorneys. It is to make sure the system is strong enough to hear them.
Here is the truth: when you are harmed, you need a lawyer to navigate a complex legal system. That is not a scandal, it is reality. The scandal is gender-based violence. The scandal is abuse. The scandal is the long history of powerful people and institutions, like the Epstein Estate using silence, intimidation, and delay to escape consequences. The scandal is a mayor blocking an effort to stop wrongdoing.
If Mayor Adams was truly worried about profiteering, he would have used his time in office to expand victim services, fund trauma-informed care, and build systems that resolve cases efficiently and fairly.
Intro 1297 is about preserving a basic New York value – that no one is above the law. Not a landlord. Not a boss. Not a celebrity. Not an institution. Not even the political class. Accountability is not partisan, and it is not optional.
With Eric Adams now out of office, the Council will stand up for victims. This month, we will override his callous veto because New York City cannot afford a precedent where unanimous support for justice is treated like a suggestion. We will not let any mayor slam the courthouse door and then blame the people trying to hold it open.
New York has never been perfect. But our promise matters. We are a city built by people who believed tomorrow could be fairer than today, that the powerful could be challenged, that harm could be named, and that truth could be heard.
That is the city I serve. That is the city survivors deserve. And that is why this veto will not stand.
