The election was divisive. The nation is divided. We must remain united.
It’s true. Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States this week. The process that led to his election was divisive, reportedly the most divisive election of the century.
It’s also true that after the election, the nation is divided. So divided that citizens have been protesting in the streets of many major cities including New York, Chicago, Seattle and Oakland.
Further, it’s true that President-elect Trump has boasted that he has committed multiple acts that some in the media and elsewhere have labeled sexual assaults. And the victims of at least some of those alleged assaults have corroborated his statements.
Given these facts, as well as current law, we can reasonably conclude that President-elect Trump would be shocked to learn that he could be labeled an unconvicted “sex offender”. It is only logical then that as a member of the “sex offender” community, President-elect Trump will demonstrate his concern for registrants and their families.
President-elect Trump will choose Supreme Court justices who are eager to recognize that the requirement to register as a sex offender is punishment and therefore quickly overturn the wrongly decided case, Smith v. Doe. In addition, President-elect Trump will choose an Attorney General who will recognize that the Adam Walsh Act violates the U.S. Constitution and therefore all state registries must be abolished. Further, President-elect Trump will work with Congress to overturn the International Megan’s Law because it unfairly and unjustly brands hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens as sex tourists and sex traffickers. Finally, President-elect Trump will ensure that registrants are fully employed, have adequate housing (perhaps in Trump Towers) and can live in peace with their families.
In case President-elect Trump makes different choices, however, we hope that you will join us to restore justice in the land. We hope that you will Show Up – Stand Up – Speak Up when we testify in the State Capitol about the need for a tiered registry, in federal district courts when we challenge residency restrictions and in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when we continue our challenge to the International Megan’s Law. For it will take a united front to protect the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of more than 850,000 registrants and their families.
–by Janice Bellucci
(updated 1:52 pm)
Read all Janice’s Journals
I concur. Thank you for this, Janice.
I will be in meetings addressing those same concerns. It has been given to me the context on how to move forward. It’s a God thing…
Well, either way there was going to be a sex offender in the White House.
i hope he will hear what your saying Janice, how can we get to him with this information? i hope this is tongue in cheek sarcasm as it were. i was thinking if his election would be good for us or more of a hinderance, he is against illegal immigrants so why would he support trying to keep us all here rather then let us travel freely around the globe?? so many different things running through my mind right now
Could Trump actually be charged in any of those alleged acts? I haven’t heard anyone analyse that scenario, either from before he takes the oath or after. Just as some assume he did break the law most seem to talk like he is immune from facing charges. I guess he would be immune, aren’t most politicians somehow immune. Worst they get is a little embarrassment.
Anyway, why would Trump have any empathy? He was accused and the result, almost half of the voting population made him president despite that. He has no idea what it is like being really accused and being convicted when you don’t have the celebrity shield to protect you.
Very well said, Janice.
I believe that every member of Congress, Senators as well as the President elect and his entire staff, along with current and appointed Supreme Court Justices, needs to read what you have written. Is there a way to convey your words to them all? It is so well stated by you, that anyone who makes the promise to abide by our Constitution needs to read your words.
I like the humor, and appreciate the statements.
I’ll still disagree that a tiered system is any more legal than one size fits all, since the tiered system still uses arbitrary durations and lumps everyone committing certain crimes together without an individual assessment by a judge in the original legal system that allows appeals and adjustments.
It’s illegal for a judge to apply restrictions to all committing the same crime without taking into account individual circumstances, but it’s ok for politicians to do not only to a specific crime, but an entire group of them?
Wait a minute Janice, I think you better remove the tiered registry idea after claiming registries are unconstitutional, don’t you think? I thought that was a part only to be applied in the form of supervised release, not a public system? Heck, if anyone really needs to be on a public registry, they probably shouldn’t be allowed to be out here in society, in other words the punishment should have either kept them locked up or committed? You can’t be suggesting contradictory applications of law, or are you? You can’t have it both ways!
I only read half of it because I quickly realised no need to go on because it’s true that you’re not politically biased.
From what I saw, which may or may not be all, it sounded like he said he “could do” those things, not that he did. If so, it reminds me of when he said ” I COULD shoot someone and my supporters would still back me”. You as a lawyer know that’s not an admission of guilt.
If anyone can point to the VIDEO that shows where he admitted to actual criminal behavior and not the faux criminal wannabe act of making a move on someone, I’m all eyes.
A transcript isn’t good enough.. if there’s a transcript then there’s an actual video file.
I’ve seen proof of him being a blowhard, obnoxious fascist but nothing yet sexually criminal.
As for a divided country: That’s what happens when both sides endeavor to smear and control the other. Just remember, every time you talk shit and you choose to use liberal, republican and libertarian in your generalized rant… you are part of the problem. YOU are the divider.
Well that fact is he is not a “sex offender” and he has denied any sexual molestation or assaults. I wish I could agrees with you, but sex offenders have such a stigma attached to them, there is no way he is going to be different than Clinton would have been. It is wishful, if not hopeful thinking, but I think it gives us false hope.
Hello Ron,
You don’t need to spend much time at this site, to hear the stories over and over again of RC’s who have been
trapped within the lifetime of this registration scheme, for doing much less than what “The Donald” has been accused of. Maybe Trump groped and maybe he didn’t. Maybe he
inappropriately touched and maybe he didn’t.
What about those who never touched a soul…and are spending the rest of their lives in the chains of the registry for looking at an “IMAGE”.
Someone with the power and pull of a Donald Trump can do just about anything they desire and get away with it.
WE CAN’T.
Trump may or may not be a unconvicted SO, but he has potentially done enough to get you or me or anyone else who is not an elite….arrested on probable cause.
I feel that the words of Janice, simply bring out into the open how bad the SOR is and why it needs to go away. President Elect Trump has the power to make the SOR go away. And that is what we all want.
If he is even close to becoming a Registered Citizen with us, I’ll bet the registry goes away.
And BTW.
I voted for Donald Trump.
I like your thinking Janice, I had thought about this as I am not too sure about agreeing with much he says, but this is the most important issue in our lives, taking precidence over global warming, other countries, name it. If President Trump can do anything to help our families, then he will have our support for live. What can we do to send him letters, worded correctly, so he can see the injustice and punishment not fitting crimes.
Janice, you have my unconditional support. We all have to work together against the insanity.
The one thing we need to remember the same media, celebs, academia, and politicians that hated Trump, also hates us.
Where is all this false hope that Trump will provide any assistance to sex offenders coming from?
Everything Trump has ever done in his campaign was knee-jerk reactions and sound bites. If his position on something isn’t popular with a majority of people and won’t fit in an easy to understand tweet, then he doesn’t take that position. He will do nothing but the easy thing, which is to “save the children” and “increase punishment” for sex offenders.
He won’t even say what his healthcare plan is other than to repeal Obama Care. That’s all the majority wants to hear regardless of if its the right thing to do or if he actually has some secret plan to get healthcare for the millions that got it on Obamacare.
Someone here mentioned that politicians are trying to get the death penalty for child molesters. It was Hillary whose position on the Death Penalty is that the death penalty should be reserved for murderers only. Hillary could have just as easily been some anti-registrant hawk like Catherine Cortez-Masto, who won in Nevada. Hillary did not make punishing sex offenders part of every sentence she speaks like Cortez-Masto at least. Cortez-Masto won, but her opponent Joe Heck seemed on board with all the authoritarian crap against sex offenders. So it was a lesser of two evil things there. At least Republican Kelly Ayotte lost in New Hampshire. But to make things even worse, she is now being discussed to become Trumps Defense Secretary and she does make attacking registrants part of every sentence she speaks. This cannot be good. With an incoming Republican President, Republican Congress, 3 to 4 Scotus Justices to be replaced with a Republican Senate to confirm them, things are not looking too hopeful. Trump is publicly friends with a registrant, Iron Mike. Trump said Mike should have been given a fine or something and no prison time. If trump himself were to make decisions on domestic policy such as registrants it may not be as bad as what Trump seems to be doing, which is handing domestic policy off to long time Republican establishment people from the Bush years where trhe only thing I can see having changed their minds on there past anti-registrant positions would be the demise of their brethren, Dennis Hastert. Trump seems like he may prfer to focus his perosnal attentin to matters of trade and foriegn policy. I personally am very disappoointed and that’s why I am upset that HIllarys people did not reach out to registrants who largely were too mired in dysfunction to vote at all. Janice indicated a few weeks ago she prefers Democratic rule. I sense the tone of this piece is to hope for the best, and it would be naive not to prepare for the worst.
While it would be only logical that someone who committed acts that would be registerable would demonstrate concern for people on the registry and their families, I think we all know that logic has nothing to do with this.
In my experience, the people who demagogue the loudest regarding the registry tend to be those individuals with registerable skeletons in their closet. Of course I’m not a sex offender! Look how loud and obnoxious I am when it comes to punishing them!
I guess we’ll all find out together.
Well Stated Janice, well stated.
(Why can’t press take this one in?)
It’s only the facts…think about how many wrongful others out
there if our president gets away with it that have not been caught
yet or never turned themselves in for acts like the Donald.
I don’t know if that was sarcasm or if janice actually believes what she said about trump and his Supreme Court appointees but trump does still calls tyson a friend and even stated he was proud to have tyson endorse him….so who knows anythings better than corrupt Hillary and the status qou….the path our country has been on has done nothing but erode our freedoms and made the rich get richer and the poor get poorer…hopefully he does what he says and cleans up the swamp….
What’s wrong with registries? I will provide some insight.
1). They are entirely predictive, and punishes for what might happen.
2). They remove the presumption that punishment does or can work.
3). They remove any presumption of future innocence.
4). They permit an unlawful predictive mental health designation and you receive none of the well established mental health law protections.
5). They permit too much judicial discretion.
6). They render a judicial contract and the principles of res judicata and collateral estoppel meaningless.
7). They permit discretional freedom of speech, expression, association, redress, and religion by judicial bodies and town, city, state and federal bodies.
8). They are entirely void of any u.s. constitutional protections.
9). They declare a u.s. citizen “persona non grata”.
10. They permit psychological, socioeconomic, and physical torture and treatment upon a person who is never permitted to forget, be removed from their influence, directly and indirectly affects their friends, families, associations with societal pressure and bias, and imposes financial, residence, employment, schooling, etc, burdens.
11). They do not provide any meaningful protection to anyone, since laws clearly don’t prevent the majority of crimes.
12). They permit anyone the ability to utilize the registries to locate, and determine who they will harm, destroy their property, harass, and humiliate.
13). I have never heard of a single case where a registry protected someone or prevented a crime.
14). There is no legal duty in the u.s. constitution that allows a federal, state, or local body to take control of a persons image, reputation, etc, except when being punished.
15). Defamation of character and slander lawsuits are based upon acts that someone has claimed might be true or might happen, but even so RCs cannot sue for defamation of character or slander against the government who apply what might be true and what might happen character determinations.
16). Even draft registration permits the use of the 5th amendment and other constitutional protections and it too is a regulatory law. Every 5th amendment precedent case states the following, “the 5th amendment applies to all regulatory, adminstrative, civil, and criminal laws. Does it really?
17). There is no such precedent or law including regulatory, administrative, civil, or criminal that is not subject to the protections of the u.s. constitution, except for registries?
18). This is the kind of law the u.s. supreme court upheld, are we supposed to obey and listen to them when they allow such a law to be passed?
19). By the way all of the same information was already available on any conviction website, and while it may be the government’s right to make some information public and they are free to do so. it does not include your drivers license, address, phone number, photo, employer, school, or private information you pay to keep private, nor can they force a citizen to do so except when being punished, or jury duty, or voting, since they are the only legal duties in the u.s. constitution.
20). I could go on and on and on and never find one law that supports registries, with the exception of the Dred Scott decision permitting legal slavery.
So what’s right about registries legally?
21). You tell us?
Janice,Trump in a speech said this,which alarmed me a lot,I supported him,
“child molesters can not be cured”. It there fore follows that hes belief
is all sex offenders are child molesters and can’t be cured.If a certain celebrity
justice fighter you know who that is ,were to whisper things in hes ear
such as forcing states to use the Adam Walsh Act.We could be subject to
really horrible things.I believe Trump looks at both sides of an issue,I believe he needs to be contacted
as soon as possible when hes sworn in and presented facts.I believe he is about true facts,the justice
system (the people in it) seems to rely on how does this effect me,not on whats right or true,the system is corrupt to the core.
Dear Janice,
I think you are being optimistic but I see the possibilities in your argument. There is some obvious awakening in the Federal Courts to the reality that registered citizens are a vanishingly small threat to re-offend and pose a threat to almost no one.
The question is, as was asked above, how do we get the word out to President-elect Trump as he is forming the framework for his administration?
What’s better for our cause? Conservative or Liberal judges? The 6th circuit judge Judge Alice Batchelder is a conservative judge that gave us the ruling we wanted. Meanwhile wasnt it a liberal judge who dismissed our IML lawsuit? Before the 6th circuit ruling I always assumed that liberal judges were better for us but now I just don’t know.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything EXCEPT the “tiered” registry. It just disturbs me that even though ACSOL supporters have NO IDEA as to the details behind the tiered bill, this organization still sees it appropriate to stand behind a tiered registry that no one seems to know the details of. Specifically, how will the “tiers” be organized? Will it be classified according to offense OR classified by Static-99R scam scores?
How can a tiered registry even be supported when no evidence supports effectiveness of registration laws in the first place?