It’s over, but it’s not over. What do I mean? The hearing for the Preliminary Injunction requested in the International Megan’s Law (IML) case is over. However, our challenge to the IML case is not over. In fact, it has just begun.
It is always difficult to argue a motion in federal court. No matter how well you prepare, the judge can and does ask questions for which you are not quite ready. For example, in this week’s hearing the judge asked a question about the use of a passport. It’s only used when one enters a foreign country, right? Wrong! Passports are used continuously during a trip overseas – starting with entry, but also when you rent a car, check into a hotel, change money, etc.
The judge also asked why the addition of a “conspicuous, unique identifier” to a passport identified an individual as someone who has engaged in, or is likely to engage in, child sex trafficking and/or child sex tourism. It is because of the title of the law, the findings in the bill that became the law and statements made by the bill’s author on the floor of Congress and elsewhere.
Some federal judges do not like to tip their hand, that is, to expose their feelings and/or beliefs during a hearing. And perhaps that is what happened this week. However, if the judge’s questions did reflect her feelings and/or beliefs, I am not optimistic about the outcome. The judge has taken under submission the Motion for Preliminary Injunction, the same action she took with regard to the first two motions she heard the same morning. She will issue her decision when she is ready to do so and there is no deadline for her decision.
While we await the judge’s decision, we will not remain idle. Instead, we will begin the discovery process in order to reveal the inner workings of Operation Angel Watch. For example, how many notices have been sent to foreign countries regarding individuals who are no longer required to register? The government admitted in court this week that they made one mistake when they sent such a notice to a foreign country regarding John Doe #3. It’s easy to believe that if the government made one mistake, they’ve made many more.
The one federal government mistake we need to prevent is the addition of a Scarlet letter to even one passport belonging to a U.S. citizen. We will have many more opportunities during the next few months to do so including when the government issues draft regulations explaining what the Scarlet letter will look like and how it will be applied to passports.
So stay tuned. We may or may not have lost one battle due to this week’s hearing. We have many more battles to come. The IML war is far from over. In fact, it has just begun.
Read all of Janice’s Journal
I got in trouble in 1998 when I was 21 years old for statutory rape. I did 5 years in prison and five years on probation. I am now 39 years old and have been off probation for 10 years. I own my own business and am a tax paying law abiding citizen with a family. Now I am hearing that a represenitive from New Jersey wants to pull my passport and mark it with a Scarlet Letter out of the blue. I feel the judge will see that this is wrong and uncostitutional and will give us the injunction and overall we will win this fight. Again I have been off probation 10 years and own my own business and now they want to call me in and mark my passmark? No judge will stand for this.This needs to be heard under regular circumstances and not suspended rules….This is wrong and the Judge will show that the system does not work like this(UNDER SUSPENSION)…………..Thank you Janice. EX POST FACTO
Many thanks to Janice! And while we are anxiously awaiting the judge’s decision, let us be very thankful for who is on our side: CARSOL and Janice Bellucci, defender of civil liberties extraordinaire!
Thank You for everything you are doing for us Janice!
I hear from my therapist, my legal counsel, and other “authorities” that ” the pendulum is swinging back”. And that ,”the public and others are seeing the injustice!”. Really? Don’t see it happening. I think the people holding the cards would be happy only when we pull a “JonesTown” . What flavor Kool-aid is everyone’s favorite?
I’m sorry, and I appreciate all Janice is doing, but the two reported questions, should have been easily anticipated. The question about who would see the marker, although incredibly stupid on the judge’s part, had been discussed here and I believe in the brief, although I have to go back and read it. With respect to the notification provision, I recall posts where it was stated that a decision where the judge allowed notifications to continue would be the ‘status quo’ and thus likely, clearly indicates the likelihood of a question on this issue.
Thank you Janice, thanks also to all those that attended the hearing and thanks to those who were able to donate.
The status quo as far as the notifications are concerned, was an unannounced series of government actions. The status quo was a sneak attack. If it had been announced prior to its implementation, perhaps there would have been a legal response. For the judge to say, that it was the status quo, and thus should continue does not smell right. If allowed, then any government action, once started is the status quo and should be allowed.
The notifications are much worse than the passport identifier, even though the identifier is horrendous.
I have a question more then a commit as a RSO l living in tijuan Mexico and Married to a Mexican Nationals, I also keep a residence in California to keep my registration current. I work in the US and cross three times a week. I have applied for my Mexico resendece visa and have starting the process for the Adams act waver. All this said, how do I comply with the notication at this juncture.
Note
As of to date I have not been stop by Mexico custom Or has US customs said anything to me. If anyone has any information it would be appreciated greatly.
Stressed out
As, I posted on another thread, on this site, this lawsuit is the first real opportunity for the facts and the truth of RC issues and the registry being aired in the mainstream, which, will expose the lying egg on many peoples faces and these peoples will fight to keeps these lies a float, at all cost. We have already a victory. because, every time Janice and team enters a court room, truth will get the spot light. Good job Janice, I got your back in this war.
Janice,
With the passage of the IML, the spectre of the scarlet letter being added to our passports that will no doubt further discriminate RSO’s from traveling freely abroad; residency and presence restrictions being introduced annually at every state legislative proceeding; background checks becoming a routine requirement to rent a hotel room, let alone an apartment and in obtaining a home mortgage; in addition to proliferating in the employment screening out process and at every layer of local, state and federal lawmaking is the constant addition of barrier after barrier to mere survival in the United States…
… I am wondering: wouldn’t it be more prudent to attack the head of the monster, Smith v. Doe, and concentrate on quashing the antiquated Supreme Court decision that sex offender registration is merely regulatory and non-punitive in nature, rather than going after one of the monster’s many limbs?
Do you think we have enough evidence and/or resources, pooled nationally, that the Ex Post Facto Clause and/or the 1st, 4th. 5th, 8th, 13th or 14th Amendments are being violated to build a persuasive argument and take it to the Justices now?
I would be most interested to hear your opinion; and that of other scholars,lawyers and laymen; and from especially those who would be willing to be a plaintiff, like myself, should a federal civil rights complaint be raised against the burden Smith v. Doe so tacitly dismisses as “no more onerous than applying for a Price Club membership?”
I am ready to lend my name to that lawsuit today, simply from how my privacy has been totally obliterated allowing my identity to be stolen from being publicly identifiable on Megan’s Law.
Everybody needs to step back and take a deep breath…
I know you are injured, hurt and worn down by the daily grind of what an unfair system is imposing on you…
But it is not like you have a choice this damned thing. If there were any way we could walk away from this we would…
But we can’t….and oddly, this is our strength…we have to endure, fight the good fight, keep the faith, (especially in each other), and work towards a better day.
None of here would mind, I think, a fair hearing on each of our current individual circumstances….if my society gave me a fair hearing as to my danger…and there was an independent determination that I needed to be on this list…I think each of us would accept this.
If our society dealt with us fairly, justly, I suspect that it would be a very small registry that was left.
And maybe that list would do some good…again, treating the members of this disfavored class fairly…yes, this is a Registry I could support.
Until then, this current battle is just one of many to come…but this one still has to be fought.
I think it is going well.
But I know that pushing rocks uphill is always a difficult task…
And I thank Janice and her support staff more than they can know.
I want them to sleep well…they are truly, though it seems odd to say this, doing God’s work….trying to bring a little Justice to this poor world.
I am with you all the way.
Good Luck to everyone…remember, our job, (and as I like to think, the best revenge), is living as good and full and loving a Life as possible,
If we do that…and support Janice, we will be fine.
Best Wishes, James
Janice, glad to have the opportunity to watch you at work. The judge did have some tough questions, but what made the day was at the very end. She had spoken all through the hearing as if there were laws already in place that justified the present notifications, and therefore IML was just a continuance of those laws. One could see she was taken back when you mentioned you didn’t believe there were any laws to justify what they are doing. She began quickly shuffling through her papers as if to find that law and couldn’t. Check.
Thank You Janice for the great job your doing , in many ways I see this up hill fight as a good thing in small as well as large ways, like my oldest son , just went out and got a small part time job on top of his main job , just so he could afford to give me more money to send in for this very worth while fight , I feel so proud of him , its like he just opened his eyes thank you Janice , and thanks to everyone that gives ther time and hard earned money , thanks to all of the people that leave comments , because it helps me understand so much better as well as so many others just want to here another voice besides there own
I don’t know what relieves this might have but I fall under exclusion privilage from the public websit as my record as been exsupuged have applied for a pardon from 290 registration requirement as well but as my victim was a minor, I have very little hope this will ever happen, and to stress me out worse this could change as there is a bill in committy this month trying to elimate this exclusion privilage. if this happens my life will be over. I know US customs aware i am a RSO, as I am sent to secondary every time I cross the boarder. I have faith that the IML will be revised but my believe it’s never going away as this is just the beging, my believe is the federal government wants to track all people’s movement between our states and our countries boards.
We are easy targets to start this process and to profect the means to do so. Welcome to the new world order
Be great to have a transcript of the entire Feb 30 hearing for all to review here.
Yes, it would be great to have a transcript of the entire Feb 30 hearing start-to-finish for all to review here.
Also: Aren’t there any other federal injunction suits now filed or being filed in U.S. against International Megan’s Law (IML)? New York? New Jersey? D.C.? Massachusetts? Florida? Colorado? Oregon? Michigan? Shouldn’t there be 30-40 suits filed by now in the U.S. against this?
Aren’t there civil and human rights organizations that could and should be filing? What about national ACLU (I know there has been hesitance by ACLU to join in CA reform advocacy – for whatever organizational or personal reasons against RSOL or registrants present and past)?
What about other rights organizations who advocate for registrants present and past and their loved ones all over the U.S.? Not one is stepping up, too, to add volume to the pressure on this federal/international human rights issue?
What about civil and human rights attorneys with federal court experience, and large law schools’ civil and constitutional rights programs? There’s not even one other federal injunction case brought by anyone with actual federal court experience in the entire country? T
What about those of some wealth who are directly or indirectly affected by such law? Can they fund individual or class-action suits (with aggressive case-argument-experienced federal litigation attorneys) against IML?
If this sole case is the only one in the U.S. – and others are standing-by, likely for years, awaiting decisions and outcomes from this one case – what opportunities for reform are being missed?
Asking these questions is to press for others with direct federal case experience to join in, not necessarily question or fault others who’ve stepped forward in good faith to help.
If this is the only complaint within the country, best that it was filed in the Ninth Circuit. If we can’t create a split that ensures a Supreme Court review, then the Ninth Circuit is our best bet. If some savvy pro se SO wants to file a complaint in another federal district court using the same arguments as Janice is using, it would be hard for the government to force that to be moved (hardship for the plaintiff) and be joined with the current case.
As for other so called civil rights organizations, I won’t name names but use their initials (ACLU), they are mostly a waste of time on this subject. In Washington State last year the State pass SB 5154-2015 and imposed a 21 day notification and waiting period requirement for all registrants. I asked the ACLU here to assist but they declined, so I filed action on my own. In my amended complaint I took portions of Janice’s arguments and language. We go to trial May 23rd. Over the last six months I failed in getting appellate review for a preliminary injunction and now am fighting a motion for summary judgment and dismissal, which i should win.
This is all happening on a shoestring budget without help from our friends at the ACLU. Even if I make bad law, at least I am fighting something worthy. In five years I am off the registry here anyway, so losing is not the end of the world for me.
Since Janice is doing the heavy lifting here, remember she needs our donations. Give generously, for she looks to be your only hope. God bless that woman, for she is a saint in my eyes.
A little off topic but still relevant to IML . I renewed my Passport early just before I was convicted anticipating something like this , my passport says its good until 2023 did I avoid any trouble here by doing this ? I was convicted of pc 261(a)(4) I have 14 months left on parole and I want to travel after that (no other convictions) Do you think they will ask for the passport back ? I am in Calif would I have to announce my travel plans ? When would this law go into effect ? Are there any other states taking this to court like our RSOL ?
Thank You so very very much Janice!!! i wish there would be others with your legal knowledge to join the fight as much as you are. The ACLU should be ashamed, very ashamed that they are not constantly fighting these unjust laws that affect so many! Here in Florida I can’t even vote!
Again, Thank you so very very much!!! you are the only hope for so many!!!!
I was facing 20 years on parole. I was sentenced to 3 yrs, but a new law had passed. I was told this was it. It could never be over turned. We get so many letters in the mail promising that they can help us. Lies!, but by the grace of God I found Chance Oberstein # 1-949-3656-5842. I’m glad I took a chance On him best money ever spent. Because I’m no longer doing 20 years on parole. He was the only lawyer who knew what he was talking about. So if your looking for a Lawyer who knows what he’s talking about I sincerely recommend him. Thanks Mr. Oberstein your honesty, and support was appreciated.
It seems to me that a valid argument against such a mark in one’s passport is that the laws across our land, and the world, are very different. For instance, having been convicted of breaking a law in California, it may very well be that my actions would not have been illegal in other states of the U.S., much less in many parts of our world. Therefore, any universal “scarlet letter” such as one included in an international passport, is cruel, and certainly ridiculous.
Does anyone have any idea about how long an injunction decision should take?
Thank you soooooo much Janice!!!
I believe the registration of sex offenders should never have been applied retroactively or first time offenders period. The EX POST FACTO CLAUSE OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION IS CLEAR ON THIS. THE CASE ARGUED BEFORE THE US SUPREME COURT IN 2003 WAS PRESENTED WITH FRAUDULENT STATISTICAL DATA BY THE U S SOLICITOR GENERAL. FALSE EVIDENCE PRESENTED TO THE JUSTICES TO MAKE THIS HORRIBLE DECISION. THIS WILL BE ADDRESSED IN COURT IN THE FUTURE THAT IS A GIVEN.
I totally agree. The way they get around this is, the registration is tied to a never expiring statute of limitations of the crime that you were charged with. It’s a bit of spurious legal maneuvering, and it’s part of what makes the International Meagan’s Law so wrong, because they report an RSO as someone guilty of a sex crime. If you received differed adjudication, you are not guilty of a sex crime. You are just a person who was charged with a sex crime being forced to register because of a never expiring statute of limitations tied to the definition of the crime you were charged with.
If other countries knew the facts of this, they would probably not understand it, because they have laws that are about justice. If they did understand it, they would probably laugh and say no, so the US tricks them into cooperating by calling us “criminals”. That word they understand. It is of course dishonest, and slander, but hey, this is the good oll’ USA… God bless America