The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a decision, that if left unchallenged, will require some individuals convicted of a sex offense to continue to register for life even if the state in which he resides no longer does.
“This decision is shocking and could reverse the benefits of every state’s Tiered Registry laws as well as other post conviction relief,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The Court has literally ruled that once a sex offender, always a sex offender.”
The petitioner in this case, Mr. Willman, was convicted of a sex offense in the state of Michigan where he served 10 years in prison and then completed parole. He challenged his registration and notification duties under both Michigan state law and federal law. The federal district court ruled against Mr. Willman and therefore he appealed that court’s decision.
In its decision, the 6th Circuit ruled that all “sex offenders”, that is, anyone convicted of a sex offense, is subject to federal SORNA requirements, including registration. The Court specifically ruled that “federal SORNA obligations are independent of state-law sex offender duties.”
The decision went on to determine that the federal SORNA is not cruel and unusual punishment and therefore does not violate the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because registration is not punishment. The Court also used this rationale to determine that the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution was not violated.
“The combination of this Court decision with the proposed federal regulations is a threat to all registrants and cannot be ignored,” stated Bellucci. “ACSOL and its allies will work together to identify all possible ways to challenge both the Court’s decision and the proposed regulations. In order to be successful, additional resources are required at this time.”
Donations for this purpose can be made either by using the “Donate” button on the front page of the ACSOL website or by mailing donations to ACSOL at 1215 K Street, 17th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814.
Willman v. US Atty Gen – 6th Cir – Aug 2020
Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to our government. How many times can they keep knocking people down and not call it cruel and unusual punishment? I thought COVID and riots would shake things up; yet it’s gotten worse for human and civil rights. What’s next concentration camps with gas chambers? I feel for those that have put on the uniform to defend this country and are now treated like an enemy of the state. Time to turn in my club membership and give this country what it deserves nothing. This country is pure evil and I’ve never been so ashamed of America or society as I am now.
I though Judge Cleland in Michigan ruled the law violate ex post facto?
The problem is that as long as judges keep saying “it’s not punishment”, the legislature can keep changing the rules and moving the goal posts as much as they want. Not sure what this means for us in Michigan who thought we might be getting some relief. I fall under pre 2011 and have no clue what is going on in the 6th Circuit right now and how that impacts Judge Cleland’s decision in District court. This is turning into more and more of a cluster every day. Now the feds are trying to pull a fast one too. The registry doesn’t work, it IS punishment. Why else would they plead these cases out to probation or short jail/prison terms and then say “we still got him, he’s on the registry for xx years”? Just f’ing ridiculous what’s going on right now.
This just seems like something out of a horror movie. How can they always apply more and different rules and laws any time they please? Once this is fought, another “law” will pop up. And what about the notifying the registration office if you leave for more than 7 days? What kind of BS is that? People go on vacation. It IS punishment every way you look at it. What is not to understand?
The US government has raped murdered and tortured innocent men women and children for hundreds of years so don’t be surprised or discouraged when they continue to tighten their grip on sexofenders Federal Government SORNA can force individual Californians to abide by the their federal laws but that won’t stop the state of California’s new tier law from going into effect and anyone who qualifies to be relieved of there duty to register will be.
If the FBI wants to in force SORNA laws they will have to do so at their own expense they’ll have do there own compliance checks its kinda like when the medical marijuana laws were pass it was legal to sale marijuana in California but the FBI still kept raiding and closing down shops and arresting shop owners and charging them on a federal level.
The state of California is over this madness their washing there hands of this life time registration BS and the FBI knows it but on their way out to cover their ass California is gonna make shore anyone who has cases involving children will never be free and will be handed over to the FBI on a silver platter.
The sexofender community is growing rapidly and the us government knows this so to pervert any type up protest or uprising their gonna do whatever it takes to first divide them up then concur and SVP’s and child molesters are top on their hit list.
It’s so obvious who theses laws are being tailor made to fit
Good luck
Not sure what it will do for the Michigan ruling ?? Would think that the Cleland Ruling was before this but who knows lol Its so crazy that all these judges keep choosing sides instead of doing what is right and constitutional . How can they say its punishment then Opps i mean its not … Crazy . Everyone knows the registry is punitive and punishment 100% . Any one on it should get disability, because it disables those who are on it .
The government would probably be content in giving everyone on the list the death penalty no matter the severity of the crime. Talk about stereotyping. I thought stereotyping was wrong to do.
Not everyone on the list is a hard core rapist like the government thinks.
Seems to be a conflict with the proposed SORNA regulations. Note the “Federal jurisdiction.” Or maybe the DOJ already knew of this 6th Cir. decision and anticipated broad jurisdiction to enforce registration by claiming to have jurisdiction over the entire U.S.
“SORNA has a dual character, imposing registration obligations on sex offenders as a matter of Federal law that are federally enforceable under circumstances supporting Federal jurisdiction, see 18 U.S.C. 2250, and providing minimum national standards that non-Federal jurisdictions are expected to incorporate in their sex offender registration and notification programs, subject to a reduction of Federal funding for those that fail to do so, see 34 U.S.C. 20912(a), 20926-27.”
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/13/2020-15804/registration-requirements-under-the-sex-offender-registration-and-notification-act
However, if the supremacy clause trumps state regulations, then SORNA should have trumped state regulations from the git-go with its tiers and sometimes less restrictive “regulatory” requirements. Maybe lawyers will weigh in.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/state-vs-federal-law-who-_b_4676579
If I’m not mistaken, Does v Snyder held that tiers are ex post facto in Michigan. SORNA has tiers. Ergo, SORNA violates ex post facto for the same class of registrants. Seems open and shut to me.
You can’t tweak something that never worked to begin with, but that won’t stop the authorities from garnering ill-earned pride from enforcing it.
SORNA is retaliatory vengeance, not justice. The irony is, at the end of the day, Adam Walsh still dies in vain, despite the lawmaker’s callously touted claim that it would “honor” his memory.
I don’t understand how this keeps getting ruled as not punishment given the unfettered expansion of negative impacts to liberty since Smith V Doe. No way can it pass the mendoza test.
Are lawyers not including the latest international travel restrictions and passport marking as well as federal housing assistance denial and eeop declaration that it is ok to use sex offender lists to deny jobs even though any other crime you let slide after 7 years?
These are all Federal disabilities to registered people that occur because states put people on the registry and supply the government with that list. Therefore, all that counts toward what the state putting someone on the registry does. The state cannot claim those disabilities cant be brought up because they are out of their control. The state is in control by providing the list and not having proper procedural and substantive due process protections to keep people off the list that don’t deserve the federal disabilities.
Janice, as far is just hitting the donation button, it would help me so much more to know exactly how much Each registrant needs to come up with. I know each will not be able to come up with that amount of money, or even close, and absolutely no judgment there, but putting a “face” on the amount would surely help our organization know What we are looking at before it gets to the higher levels such as the AG etc. This is not a political comment in the least. I would like to hit this at the lower level before it gets that far. I have contacted you previously and I’m still willing to do anything I could possibly do to help. This is such abuse. Thank you for all you do Janice
more I think about this I am wondering, if I am in a non sorna state. In Minnesota atm, Just me leaving the country seems it would make it federal and IML will be triggered for going overseas, which may re-trigger registration?
yep should be here in a few months just a bad joke, so tired of this, been blessed thru it with the right people around but dam. hoping it don’t come stamped, that would keep me from trying the Philippines, but plan to just get a sail boat if it stamped, never had a passport. I was hoping that would affect it but that is just wishful thinking lol.
I hope “Price Club” wasn’t brought up again
With my current “windfall” from the state EDD. I have set up a monthly $20 donation. I encourage those that have the ability to follow me in getting ACSOL and NARSOL the funds they need to continue the fight to maintain our rights as citizens. The judicial and political system continues to position registrants in such a way as to relegate us to the trash heap of humanity. The face on their dart boards. We need to supply those willing to go to war for us the funds with which to fight with. Money talks, and we all have experienced this. Time has come to make your taxes and hard work be heard. If not now, then when.
Everyone,
In addition to donating money, everyone can submit comments to the below link. Below the link is what the ACLU from MI had sent out today. Now is the time for everyone to allow their voices to be heard.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/13/2020-15804/registration-requirements-under-the-sex-offender-registration-and-notification-act
The link above is a better way to submit your comments on the proposed Rule Changes to SOR being offered up by the United State office of the Attorney General. At this point as I send this out thier is only about 200+ comments from across the United States. I am saddened by the fact that this number is not 1,000. You only have limited time to submit comments. Many of you asked me if it does any good to submit comments. I can only say if you do nothing then the rules will go into place without any opposition. You can talk about so many points including that the Smith V Alaska case is way off point the Recidivism rate as shown even by the FBI is NOT frighteningly high, you can talk about using the many studies to show what should be done with Registries, not scare tactics, you can talk about the fact that studies have shown that the Registry is not cutting down on sexual assaults and in fact may be raising crime rates, you can talk about the harm it does to families, you can talk about the fact the some family members do not report that they have been sexually assaulted because they do not want a family member on the Registry, talk about most sex crimes are committed by a person well known to the victim, you can talk about how even if a person who is on the registry and they are doing good and complete all terms of the court and no other convictions they is no path off the registry, you can talk about that even people with no conviction are on Sex Offender Registry, you can talk about that a lifetime on the registry is serving no useful purpose after 10 years and studies back that up. You can talk about placing people on the Registry for any number of years without a Risk Assessment for thier chance of recidivism is not a valid way to place people on the Registry, and what about the money and lost Law Enforcement time spent on this program with little return value, and about the fact that this money used on the registry could be used for victim treatment and public education. And finally, you can ask why is the Department of Justice promoting a Registry that is only used by those elected to office to use as a way to get reelected by saying they are going to make the sex offender Registry even more strict, giving the elected official a chance for some news coverage at no cost to the elected official. I have given you so many talking points and you I am sure have more please think about it we need more people to comment. When they first talked about the rules for the Adam Walsh act very few comments were submitted and you now see what we have, so speak up with your comments do NOT wait for the other guy to do it. We can only try to stop this or at least have them rethink the position they have taken if everyone submits comments.
So mad 😡 I can’t think straight!
If joe Biden wants 44,000 + votes In Michigan maybe someone smarter and more eloquent than Myself should email him at least to get his opinion?
Otherwise I and a few others will just crawl back under the rocks until the sweet release of death.
With the Court order still in place stating the Michigan SORA cannot be enforced by the State Police, and me not having verified since December 2019, I am wondering if anyone else has noticed how many RSOs in Michigan have been out abducting, molesting, and raping children. I sure am glad the registry has been keeping the public safe for the past several months. All these dangerous registrants sure are out of control. Look how many sex crimes have been committed by us since we were told we don’t have to verify until the emergency order ends and the State Police notify us of what we have to do going forward. Yeah, I’m being sarcastic of course, but those in control of the registry should take into consideration that ZERO sex crimes have been committed by RSOs during this time. This should make it obvious that registries do absolutely NOTHING to prevent sex crimes by those on it. I’m also loving the fact that the Michigan Legislature currently has a bill drafted asking for several million dollars to be taken from the SORA budget and put into the general fund to balance the budget. I say take it all, not just the $3 million or whatever it is they’re asking for.
Just my opinion.
The bottom line is that the states have autonomy under the Tenth Amendment. The USDOJ can suggest that a SO register, but if that state said no, the only thing left to do is leave your information and move along with your lives.
I’m here to tell all you guys something: Each and everyone of you with a case involving a 16-17 year compaintant are misdirecting your time challenging registration.
Your best bet is to dig your way out of trouble in reverse for the following reason:
This Court recognized in Meyer v. Nebraska, supra, that the right ‘to marry, establish a home and bring up children’ was an essential part of the liberty guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. 262 U.S., at 399, 43 S.Ct. at 626. In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 45 S.Ct. 571, the Court held unconstitutional an Oregon Act which forbade parents from sending their children to private schools because such an act ‘unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.’ 268 U.S., at 534—535, 45 S.Ct. at 573. As this Court said in Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, at 166, 64 S.Ct. 438, at 442, 88 L.Ed. 645, the Meyer and Pierce decisions ‘have respected the private realm of family life which the state cannot enter.’
“It is true that in Griswold the right of privacy in question inhered in the marital relationship… . If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.” Id., at 453.
This Court counterintuitively stated that Lawrence ,does not cover minors, which is contradicted by Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972).
MOST OF US MEN, weren’t in the relationship to violate the law, but to build a family.
This Court recognized in Meyer v. Nebraska, supra, that the right ‘to marry, establish a home and bring up children’ was an essential part of the liberty guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. 262 U.S., at 399, 43 S.Ct. at 626.
Accordingly, there needs to be a complaint filed that these Statutory Rape laws need to be held invalid as an encroachment upon our Fourteenth Amendment rights to “establish a home and bring up children’ .” If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.” Id., at 453.