Last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that communications between sexual assault counselors and their clients are protected by state law. The ruling, a major victory for advocacy groups in Minnesota, reverses a district court decision that allowed a court review of a victim’s "notes, memoranda, records, and reports" as communicated privately with a sexual assault advocacy counselor in a criminal case. Specifically, from the high court’s ruling: “This case concerns how sexual assault counselors’ statutory privilege under Minnesota Statutes section 595.02, subdivision 1(k) (2020), interacts with a criminal defendant’s interests in a fair trial.”

Standpoint (formerly the Battered Women’s Legal Advocacy Project) filed the appeal in hopes that the Minnesota Supreme Court would take the case and set a precedent for lower courts, preventing the use of subpoenaed records in violation of a 1982 law that any "opinion or information received from or about the victim" could not be disclosed without that person's consent. Over the years district courts have sometimes subpoenaed records from sexual assault counseling agencies because attorneys have argued that those records were needed under the right to due process and full defense.

Rana Alexander, Executive Director of Standpoint

Rana Alexander, Standpoint’s executive director, was the lead attorney on this case and has been advocating for the privacy and protection of victim rights in criminal cases for years. Confidentiality is one of the most critical tools sexual violence advocates have to allow them to provide essential services to victim-survivors.

"The Minnesota Supreme Court applied a strict scrutiny standard and it said that the state has a compelling governmental interest in protecting sexual assault victims," Alexander said. "That is a huge statement from the Supreme Court in recognizing that we are serious in the state of Minnesota about ending sexual violence." Read more in the Star Tribune and read the decision here.