Non disclosure agreements are a classic example, especially, as in the cases of Weinstein and Trump, they are used to keep women silent about sexual events that might otherwise be charged as rape, harassment or other abuse.
Central to such agreements is something called money. Thus, if you have enough money to pay someone to keep silent you don't have to worry about going to prison for one's offenses. And it should be remembered that if one pays someone a large sum to keep silent there is probably something to keep silent about.
There have been some efforts to correct this situation. In March 2018, the New Yorker reported:
Before #MeToo, several states, including Florida, Washington, and Louisiana, already had “sunshine in litigation” laws, which prohibit confidentiality provisions if they conceal “public hazards,” such as dangers to general health or safety. (The name is a riff on Justice Louis Brandeis’s quotation that sunlight is “the best of disinfectants.”) In recent months, after #MeToo, several states, including New York and California, have proposed new legislation prohibiting confidentiality provisions in contracts that have the purpose or effect of concealing discrimination or harassment. The tax bill that Congress passed in December even included a provision disallowing a deduction for “any settlement or payment related to sexual harassment or sexual abuse if such settlement or payment is subject to a nondisclosure agreement.”And these cases can involved more than sex. For example, USA Today reported:
But the key point is that such payments are only possible if you have the money to make them, thus exempting the wealthy from more painful aspects of criminal and civil law. The average bigamist or sex abuser can't afford a few hundred thousand dollars for silence. Non disclosure is non-justice favoring the rich and powerful.The payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels were not reported at the time and amounted to improper campaign contributions, prosecutors said.
