Author: CCRC Staff

Editorial staff of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center

Clean slate expungement bill passes in Missouri

On May 15, the Missouri legislature gave bipartisan approval to a measure mandating automatic expungement of felony amd misdemeanor drug possession convictions, and convictions for unlawful use of drug paraphernalia. If SB 1421 is approved by the governor, felonies will be expunged after three years without a new conviction, and misdemeanors will be expunged after one year.  A person is limited to three misdemeanor and two felony expungements under the bill, combined with existing expungement laws. The bill sets forth detailed provisions for its administration, both by the courts and by the state highway patrol.  It is to be effective…

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Federal expungement for survivors of human trafficking

Until this year, there was no federal law authorizing expungement or sealing of a federal conviction.  That changed on January 23, 2026, when President Trump signed into law the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (TSRA), 18 U.S.C. § 3771A.  The TSRA authorizes courts to grant record relief in the form of vacatur and expungement to survivors of human trafficking arrested or convicted of a nonviolent federal crime as a direct result of their being a victim of trafficking, defined as sex or labor trafficking under 22 U.S.C. 7102.  Our research indicates that this is the first time in our Nation’s history that…

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Maine governor vetoes clean slate bill

On April 29, Maine governor Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have authorized automatic sealing of many misdemeanor convictions after five conviction-free years, and made Maine the 14th state to adopt a “clean slate” record relief measure.  Efforts to override her veto failed, but supporters of the failed record relief bill vowed to bring it back in the next legislative session. Our recent annual report notes that Illinois became the 13th “clean slate” state when Governor Pritzker signed it into law in January.  The Illinois law’s provisions are explained in a post we published last fall. In support of her…

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Criminal record reforms continue to deliver in 2025

For almost a decade, at the beginning of each new year, CCRC has published a report describing and evaluating record reforms enacted in the previous year. Our reports have documented the steady progress of what we characterized six years ago as “a full-fledged law reform movement” aimed at restoring rights and status to individuals who have successfully navigated the criminal law system. Our 2025 report on newly enacted record reforms is a bit late this year due to technical difficulties with our website, but it shows that the steady progress of law reform has continued. In fact, 2025 was the…

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Restoration of firearm rights after conviction: Findings and recommendations

We are pleased to publish an updated version of our report on state laws governing loss and restoration of firearm rights after a criminal conviction: Restoration of Firearm Rights After Conviction: A National Survey and Recommendations for Reform. This report, a version of which was originally published in June of 2025, finds that felony dispossession laws in most states extend well beyond what is necessary to advance public safety objectives, and that the process for regaining lost rights tends to be difficult to navigate if accessible at all. Our report argues that broad categorical dispossession laws are more vulnerable to constitutional…

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