GUAM
Hawaii Public Radio

[with audio]

By NEAL CONAN

This week, the Archdiocese of Guam asked a federal court to dismiss dozens of law suits filed by former altar boys who say they were raped and assaulted by priests as far back as the 1970s. The key to the suits was a law passed last year that lifted the statute of limitations, and as we hear from Neal Conan in today’s Pacific News Minute, that law is also the basis of the Archdiocese’s argument.

Under the old law, suits had to be filed within one or two years after the alleged abuse. But as outrage grew following publication of the altar boys stories, the legislature approved a bill that removed the time limit entirely. Even as he signed the bill, Governor Eddie Calvo wondered whether it was constitutional to lift the statute of limitations retroactively. Afterwards, 47 cases were…