A group of convicted sex offenders has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a far-reaching ordinance in Apple Valley that severely restricts where they can live, alleging that the ordinance effectively bars them from living anywhere in the city.
In a federal class action lawsuit filed Wednesday, three sex offenders seek an injunction preventing the city of Apple Valley from enforcing the ordinance, which prohibits people convicted of certain sex offenses from living within 1,500 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, churches and child care centers. The ordinance is so extensive that more than 90% of the residential properties within the city’s boundaries are off-limits to offenders, the lawsuit states.
In recent years, cities and counties across Minnesota have passed sex-offender residency restrictions, in part due to concerns that the state is running out of places to house offenders. More than 80 localities across Minnesota, from Inver Grove Heights to Cloquet, have adopted such ordinances — effectively making large swaths of the state off-limits to offenders who have already served their prison terms.
Yet such ordinances have come under increased scrutiny from the courts and attorneys representing sex offenders, who argue that the measures violate civil rights and also impede efforts by the state to integrate offenders back into society. “The restrictions the ordinance impose are so severe that they effectively ban individuals subject to the ordinance’s restrictions from residing anywhere in Apple Valley,” the offenders state in the lawsuit.
Go Adele. Great to bring the fight to the midwest.
Ditto: Go Adele!! I wish you all the success with these restrictions that Janice has enjoyed in California! Knock ’em down like dominos!!
I don’t mean to sound like a jerk but its worth repeating. If you are a registered sex offender, do your research before you buy a condo or rent an apartment in a new community you want to live in. If that man simply knew the ordinance in Apple Valley, he could have avoided the hassle by buying a condo in a nearby town without an ordinance. Now this man has to both sale his condo AND find a temporary town to live that accepts registered sex offenders because the polees in Apple Valley aint goin wait for you sell your condo because they want your ass out now.