California registrants won a major victory today! Federal district court judge Thelton Henderson granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) late Wednesday that prevents enforcement of requirements in Proposition 35 that require registrants to identify their online identities and activities. The TRO will stay in effect for 14 days. A hearing on whether to extend the TRO is scheduled for November 20 in San Franciso. ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed the lawsuit, which includes California RSOL as a plaintiff, earlier today.
Update 9:30 pm: More on the ACLU web site
Oh my gosh!! We were just logging on to see if any new news was posted before we headed to the PD! This is fantastic …. Thank you, thank you, thank you God. We are grateful for 14 days … One~step~at~a~time … Albeit baby steps they ARE steps!!
thank you God bless….
Just in case there is too much legal jargon in this article, I want to interpret the effect of this judge’s decision. Registrants do NOT have to provide information regarding his/her online identities or online activities to law enforcement for the next 14 days. That could change after the hearing on Nov. 20, but for now that is the law. As stated above, this is a major victory!
Whew..thank you for posting this information. Good ole Judge Henderson…Thank you Janice, the ACLU, and the EFF for all your work on this important issue.
Very good news indeed! Thank you Janice for getting this far in pushing back these unjust laws.
im a rso and i see where the people are coming from but now that means that they are requiring us to give us our online information and think that is invasion of our privacy. I have kids that use the computer and if they type something into search and comes up something that they shouldnt be looking at that i can go to prison its just fricken wrong we have rights also just because they put this into law with sex trafficing they are punishing us once again
Great news. I’ll be holding my breath until Nov. 20.
Hearing things like a comment on the main prop 35 article about police demanding ebay, paypal & online banking log-ins,which seems obviously outside the scope of the law, scares me to no end for how this law is going to be abused if allowed to pass. I am very close to leaving the country because of the way things are going, it’d be nice if things would start to turn around.
Thank you rsol & sclu & all who helped & continue to help in this.
This makes real and vital differences in real people’s lives.
Just knowing that a small part of society hasn’t succumbed to the Orwellian movement is reassuring, though victories will be even more appreciated: crossing my fingers for those.
With the TRO in place, I guess now there is no need for contacting the police- at least until we hear more after Nov 20.
great news. thanks! Althogh there are some of us who already provided our info to PD, but since this will stop the prop 35 from immidiate enforcment till Nov. 20 its a good news. hopfully that portion of prop 35 will stop forever.
Great news indeed.
While they’re at it, can they get that Prop 30 tax hike blocked, too?
Fantastic. Thank you for upholding our constitutional rights. Lets stop repression at the root… because we all know this kind of insanity starts with the minority and eventually, everyone will be monitored in the name of “security.”
Many are no longer on probation or parole.
They live in a home with other people, how would police know who went where and created what account ? It would be a violation of the rights of the other members of the house.
FYI –
I wasn’t sure where on the site to share this but this seemed like as good a place as any…
Here’s some encourageing news:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57547215-38/court-15-year-old-molester-has-a-right-to-facebook-twitter/
PS – With regard to the kid in this story – I can’t believe his bahavior is not the result of someone screwing him up at a young age and I hope he gets the help he needs.
Thank you for helping all of us
Can anyone say “Ex Post Facto” Keep up the good work! We are citizens just as anyone else.
I paid for a crime 28 years ago i did not commit, to have to register is bad enough, then Megan’s law, i shouldn’t even be there, now they try to sneak in a new bill on another bill, human trafficking, of which i have nothing to do with, yet now i have to continue to pay for a crime i did not do, with more crappy thought out laws, I happen to use the internet for everything, as i am a broadcast engineer, what an intrusion on our civil rights and our right to privacy, not to mention adding more restrictive laws to those who have already paid their price to society, yet society seems to just keep making up new laws and grandfathering those not involved into being penalized, some bureaucrat got his finger stuck in his nose.
Unfortunately I have already given my info to the local PD and had to include my ebay, paypal, and even my bank login information. I know thats not right but without a attorneys help I dont know where to begin to fight. As to Joeys comment about violating our families rights I was told by the deputy that if I had access to any of their accounts it was not violating anyones rights. I sure would love to have a attorney take this on for me as I am tired of them constantly finding new ways to make us pay for a offense we already paid for. I was wondering if maybe instead of these attorneys helping us filing on behalf of one or two RSO what if they helped us all fill out the appropriate paperwork and we all filed individually with fee waivers leaving the state to pick up the bill? I dont know about you guys but every job I was hired for I never got due to my background popping up so I couldnt pay for it at all.
JD,
If you quality, could you possibly contact your local public defender’s office?
There used to be a public defender in San Bernadino who also served on the California Sex Offender Management Board. Don’t know if she still serves.
Could you file a complaint on line with your local ACLU office? If you have one.
Keep records. Did you record who required this? Names? Dates and Times?
oops, meant “qualify”
I do understand that there are some individuals that use the Internet for inappropriate behaviour, just as there are some individuals that commit henious crimes that should be locked up for life or monitored for life, but, again, don’t punish me for someone else’s crime. This is another example of society running amuck and disregarding the civil rights of all individuals that carry the unfortunate title of Sex-Offender. I do understand the paranoia of society because of the constant “fear” projected by the media re: “Sex-Offender” as if all offenses fall under the same roof. This is another example for the need of a tiered system; which is only practicle. The punishment should fit the crime and society needs to stop judging in such a prejudicial way.
JD the key word is “access” if you don’t have their PASSWORD you don’t have access.
There has to be something we can fight under equal rights. So lets say everyone ever convicted of a crime should be on this website and make it a national criminal site instaed of singling out certain crimes. Its all public record so how about making it all accessible from the convenience of your home! Let see how people react to that!
Trafficking Protocol
Definition
The Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as:
(a) […] the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
Force or Coercion can be either physical or psychological.
If proposition is allowed to stand as law then the following people need to be put on the “LIST”
(1)You facilitate human trafficking when you purchase any product made in China as China is known to force labor for their products. You knowing exploit them when you purchase items you suspect are being made by forced labor.
(2)Anyone who ever adopted a child.
(3)Anyone who ever visited Las Vegas.
(4)Anyone who ever ate at Hooter’s
(5)Anyone who ever attended a Bachelor Party where strippers were present.
(6)Anyone whoever took a friend to watch a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, They were obviously forced into this.
(7)Anyone whoever worked for Facebook as Facebook is the biggest facilitator of human trafficking there is.
(8)Any parent who made their children do chores.
(9)Any bus company or taxi that ever transported a prostitute.
(10)Any Newspaper or website that ever advertised personal services.
(11)All politicians.
We should actually pray this passes as every one and there brother will be added to the list making it impossible for people to take serious. No one could go to the parks no one could live anywhere and Halloween would cease to exist. Not to mention if we demanded that every Email address and screen name be added within 24 hours they would have to hire a thousand people just to keep up with the paperwork
I hope the stay holds up. I committed a sex offense 25 yrs ago, I recieved a suspended sentence and 5 yrs probation. After 5 yrs I file for relief thru 1203.4 and the court granted it. My sentence did not include registeration and I was exempt from the web site. Then justice says I have to register no matter what the sentence said. So I did. Then justice pulls my exemption and I retired from my job at that point because of the harassment at the work place. Just prior to every milestone I was to reach the law gets changed to disallow it. For instance, the 10 year wait I had before I could file for a certifacate of rehab. The law was changed 6 months prior to the 10 year wait to disallow certain crimes from filing. Now the county says my wife or any one living in my home cannot decorate for halloween. I had to sell the home I lived in and owned for 16 years because the distance from schools was extended. Now they want my privacy gone. How much do I and my family have to pay for a crime I committed? The law has left no out for a sex offender. Any other crime committed has outs for restoring rights and stamped paid on the debt to society, Murder, robbery, drug trafficing, assualt etc. Thank God for ACLU and EFF.
JANICE, YOU ARE AWESONME AWESOME AWESOME! GOD BLESS!
This is hopeful news that perhaps reality might play into this new “law” but I would not count on it. Sadly reality has very little influence on “law makers” who are typically only motivated by self-promotion and self-interest.
The reality is that the technology is out of their level of understanding in this area. As usual they look at the concept of the idea instead of the actual way it would operate.
A day doesn’t go by that I don’t receive an email from myself…yes, myself or at least that is what the “header” of the email appears as. Of course, it is spam that is disguised to appear to be from me.
Knowing how sex offenders are the target of scorn and malicious attacks, I can only imagine the fun that these abusers will have once they know that email address (and other online information) is being monitored. Just imagine how much easier it will be for them to pose as someone and do posting…send emails as one of us…or enter chat rooms using a handle used by a RSO and while ultimately it could be proven it was not you or me – as we ALL have found out, we are guilty until proven innocent for the rest of our lives since they simple assume that we are going to re-offend!
Not only simple online impersonation but outright full blown identity theft! Yes, that happens every day and just wait until someone does it not for financial reasons BUT for the singular reason of framing a RSO. The system is setting us up folks – WATCH OUT and BE READY FOR IT!