Curley v. NAMBLA was a wrongful death lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2000, by Barbara and Robert Curley against the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), saying the organization had incited the men who kidnapped and murdered their young son.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU-M) represented NAMBLA because of the issue of censorship of unpopular speech about sexuality.
Soon after his son's murder, Curley had campaigned for the state to pass a bill to re-establish use of the death penalty, but he changed his position and in 2007 opposed it.
In 1997, Barbara and Robert Curley's 10-year-old son Jeffrey was kidnapped, raped and murdered by two men, Salvatore Sicari, 21, and Charlie Jaynes, 22.
[4] It charged that NAMBLA's "adult-child sexual relationship propaganda", including Jaynes' viewing of the group's website, caused his violent predatory behavior and urge to have sex with and rape young male children.
According to Wendy Kaminer, a longtime ACLU executive, the case was based on "widespread biases about a supposed link between homosexuality and pedophilia"; in fact, studies have shown that children are more likely to be preyed upon by heterosexuals in their extended families.
In September 2001, the court declined the defense's request for summary judgment, because Brandenburg "does not foreclose liability 'on any set of facts that might be shown'" as to incitement just by NAMBLA's publications, meetings and website.
In February 2017, Pedro Hernandez, a clerk in a local bodega in 1979, was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Patz, based on confessions to police.