LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas is violating federal law with the way it tracks certain sex offenders. It has cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars and some say is putting the public in danger.
The Adam Walsh Act was passed in 2006. Nearly 10 years later, Arkansas is non-compliant in three major areas. They are: failing to report certain juvenile offenders, establishing a process for getting off the registry and not listing all offenders online. Full Article
“Violates” federal law is a bit overstating. No state has to comply. It is voluntary. The only enforcement is loss of a lo of federal money to the state. It is not really a “violation of law,” it is simply a matter of not meeting the requirements to receive that money. There are all kinds of offers of money from the federal government; states do not always chose to seek that money and so do not necessarily do what would be needed in order to get it.Hey, Obamacare and the expansion of Medicaid is a high profile case in point.
I wonder why nobody attacks this on the federal level?
A State would have to attack it on the federal level. Wouldn’t be terribly difficult either if a State wanted to do so. New York v US about storing nuclear waste is really all that would be needed.
The federal government cannot force States to carry out its regulatory scheme which is clearly happening with SORNA. The federal government cannot hijack a States legislative process, which is also happening to comply with AWA/SORNA.
Now if any State has the guts to sue is a different question.