New York considers changing its sexual assault law. Minnesota could serve as an example.

In 2021, a group of prosecutors, defense attorneys, advocates, and law enforcement had already been at work for more than a year studying Minnesota’s criminal sexual conduct statutes when a state Supreme Court decision galvanized public opinion.The court overturned a man’s sexual assault conviction because the victim had willingly consumed alcohol and prescription drugs before the incident, and therefore did not meet the state’s high bar for “mentally incapacitated.” Essentially, she could have consented to sex, according to the law.Among the working group’s recommendations – shared in a report two months before the court decision – was to address cases of victims who are voluntarily intoxicated. By September of that year, Minnesota state law was amended to close what some call the involuntary intoxication loophole. Some New York officials are looking to similarly respond to the popular outrage over no criminal charges being brought initially against the seven men involved in an alleged sexual assault at Cornell University. State officials want to push comparable legislation that has languished in the legislature for several years.Days after the Cornell case made national headlines, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to adjust the law in her state. “It should not matter whether they [victims] chose to use drugs or alcohol. Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape,” she said.New York is among 19 states, according to The Associated Press, with laws that only consider intoxicated victims to be mentally incapacitated, and thereby unable to consent, if they became that way without their knowledge. After the Cornell news broke, New York lawmakers formed a 15-member panel to review changing the law in 2027 when the legislature returns.New York lawmakers could learn from other states where the law was altered, such as Minnesota. Annabelle Gordon/ReutersDemonstrators gather during a "Stop Sexual Violence" protest as part of U.S. rallies being held in the wake of the Cornell University rape allegations, at the Washington Monument in Washington, Oct. 8, 2026. Changing the lawStudies have shown that sexual assaults are heavily underreported. That’s even more the case when the victim is intoxicated, which makes them less likely to go to police and when they do, less likely that charges will be brought.In the Cornell case, the woman, named in a civil lawsuit as Jane Doe, went to campus police three weeks after the 2024 incident at the Chi Phi fraternity house. She told them she had been drinking and then went to see a male friend there. She was given and accepted ketamine, an anesthetic. Then things escalated as more men entered the room. She told campus police she was raped. The local district attorney cited New York’s law and the high bar for prosecution when there is voluntary intoxication in explaining why he did not bring charges at the time.Minnesota state Rep. Kelly Moller says via email that her state’s change to the law “came about as a result of horrific experiences of survivors here whose cases were not charged due to our outdated law on voluntary intoxication.” She prosecuted cases in the state before joining the legislature, and favored the change. She said lawmakers there, like those in New York, started with a task force to review and update the law.John Choi is county attorney in Ramsey County, Minnesota, which includes St. Paul. Before the law was changed, the high bar on involuntary intoxication “was a huge barrier,” he says. “In many of the cases that were presented to us prior to that law changing, many times we would be faced with something really horrible that’s happened, and not being able to hold the perpetrator accountable,” Mr. Choi says. Now, “we’re able to bring forward more cases.”Mr. Choi encourages other states to update their laws. He says that it shouldn’t be about whether someone voluntarily ingested alcohol or drugs if they are too intoxicated to consent.“Anybody in a state like that, they shouldn’t be taken advantage of, and I think that’s a value that most people in this country could get around and support,” Mr. Choi says. He adds that the Cornell case could be a teachable moment for young adults who don’t understand what consent really is. It could help prevent sexual harm, he says.A counterpointThere is a different perspective, though, from the defense side of sexual assault cases in Minnesota.Shauna Kieffer, president of the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, says that she couldn’t disagree more with the change to the law in her state and warns against making similar changes anywhere else.“It’s a charge that could be raised mutually if both parties were drunk, how could they consent? Yet almost always the man is charged. And it’s a bit paternalistic,” she says in an email statement to the Monitor. Ms. Kieffer says cases she has represented as a defense attorney inform her opposition to changing the law.“It becomes a great excuse for buyer’s remorse for consensual sex where one party is in a relationship elsewhere,” she says. Carl Heastie, speaker of the New York State Assembly – the legislature’s lower chamber – has said that a bill to change the sexual assault law with regard to voluntary intoxication has been considered twice, but lacked support in the chamber’s Democratic majority to advance to a vote. Some have expressed concern that overly broad language could lead to wrongful convictions. The legislation had previously passed the state Senate. The legislative working group hopes to find a way forward.In the meantime, Governor Hochul has named New York Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the Cornell case. ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. 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