MONTGOMERY (AL)
The Roys Report [Chicago IL]
December 22, 2025
By Josh Shepherd
A national movement to “end silence and expose abusers” is gaining momentum, as Alabama legislators filed a bill Wednesday to ban agreements used to coverup sexual abuse.
Alabama State Senator Matt Woods pre-filed a bill to prohibit any non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in civil cases pertaining to sexual abuse, assault or trafficking. Concurrently, Alabama State Representative David Faulkner pre-filed an identical House bill. Both versions must pass for the law to be enacted.
The bill’s text, expected to be debated by lawmakers in the new year, specifies it will be known as “Trey’s Law,” in memory of former abuse victim Trey Carlock. He was abused at a Kanakuk summer camp, a global network of Christian summer camps. He was silenced from telling his story by an NDA related to a settlement and subsequently took his own life in 2019.
Carlock’s sister, Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, has spearheaded a movement to pass Trey’s Law state-by-state, and four states have enacted it. Advocates, mental health professionals, policy experts and faith leaders have coalesced to “end silence, expose abusers, protect the vulnerable and save lives” to quote their tagline.
In its current form, the Alabama bill is toothless compared with versions in other states. The current draft only pertains to NDAs dated October 1, 2026, or later.
Nonetheless, Phillips praises the proposed bill as “a statement that survivors’ voices will no longer be lawfully silenced in Alabama’s civil courts.”
She noted the years of reported child sexual abuse and cover-up at Christian-based Kanakuk Ministries in Missouri as a driving factor for their ongoing work.
“Many victims of Kanakuk Kamps are from Alabama,” she told The Roys Report (TRR). “Since Kanakuk has refused to do the right thing and release NDAs, we’re going to change the law.”
Successful passage in Texas, Missouri
This past summer, legislators in Texas and Missouri unanimously passed versions of the bills banning NDAs related to sexual abuse, which have since gone into effect.
Notably, in Missouri, several survivors of abuse by International House of Prayer Founder Mike Bickle testified in a March hearing in support of Trey’s Law.
Similarly, in Texas, Cindy Clemishire, the woman whose account of child sex abuse prompted Dallas-area megachurch pastor Robert Morris to resign, testified twice in support of Trey’s Law.
Advocates have particularly praised the Texas law, which applies retroactively to past NDAs and has no age limit on sexual abuse claims in civil cases.
Following a year of public debate on these issues, Phillips’ advocacy group has parsed legitimate uses of NDAs—”to protect confidential corporate IP and data,” it states—versus when corporate policies are used for coverup.
“NDAs are often misused in abuse cases to protect bad actors and institutions seeking to protect their brand over a victim’s voice,” said Phillips.
The road ahead in Alabama
Why pursue passage in Alabama next?
Phillips told TRR: “We have deep family roots there and many survivors are suffering in the shadows due to NDAs.”
The proposed state law applies to both child and adult victims of sexual abuse.
Alabama legislators seeking to pass the ban on NDAs pertaining to sexual abuse face a shortened legislative session, due to midterm elections next November.
They are set to convene on January 13, 2026, and close the session about three months later, on April 27.
Josh Shepherd is production editor at The Roys Report and a journalist who writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in central Florida.