The federal government yesterday published in the Federal Register proposed changes to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The changes encompass a total of 93 pages and include a wide range of topics, including retroactivity, tier levels, professional licenses and travel (both domestic and international). Replies to the proposed regulations are due no later than October 13, 2020.
According to the proposed regulations, SORNA will apply to all individuals convicted of a sex offense, including those convicted before it was enacted. The federal government claims to have this authority due, in part, to the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Smith v. Doe, which declared that registration did not constitute punishment, but was instead merely an administrative requirement.
“Because the proposed regulations include so many pages citing their authority to apply SORNA to individuals convicted before it was enacted, it appears that they are concerned that this matter could be challenged in court,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “It is possible that ACSOL or another like minded organization will do so.”
According to the proposed regulations, SORNA requires all registrants to comply with its requirements “regardless of whether a registration jurisdiction has substantially implemented SORNA.” This statement is important because currently only 17 of the nation’s 50 states have substantially implemented SORNA.
The proposed regulations repeat that the federal government places registrants in three tiers. Those assigned to Tier 1 must register for 15 years while those assigned to Tier 2 must register for 25 years. Individuals assigned to those tiers may reduce their period of registration based upon a list of factors. Individuals assigned to Tier 3, however, must register for a lifetime.
The proposed regulations require additional information regarding employment, including whether a registrant has one more professional licenses.
“If the proposed regulations are adopted, we can expect the federal government to notify states that have issued a professional license to a registrant,” stated Bellucci. “We are concerned that the states will, in turn, revoke those licenses.”
According to the proposed regulations, individuals will be required to notify their local registration office if they leave the jurisdiction for seven days or longer. This requirement is proposed allegedly in order to protect children who reside at the location(s) where a registrant may visit.
The proposed regulations also address overseas travel for those subject to the International Megan’s Law. Specifically, the regulations will require registrants to provide additional information to the federal government regarding their overseas travel such as whether they have dual citizenship and/or a passport issued by another country.
“ACSOL began its discussion of the proposed regulations on the same day they were published,” stated Bellucci. “ACSOL will formally reply to the proposed regulations as an individual organization or in collaboration with like-minded organizations.”
Any individual that would like to volunteer to work with ACSOL on this effort should send an email to service@all4consolaws.org
Proposed rulemaking – SORNA – Aug 2020
@MH and others – The proposed regulations are not limited to international travel, they also address domestic travel in some situations. Specifically, they require registrants to notify the state in which they live if they plan to leave the state for 7 days or longer or if they are moving out of the state permanently. If a registrant fails to do so, he can be arrested by the federal government as soon as he crosses the state boundary. Given that there are registration offices that would refuse to accept such notices, the registrant would be required to prove that he attempted to do so. If he cannot prove his attempt, it is likely that he will charged and convicted by the federal government of failing to register. This one of the many reasons we must STOP the proposed regulations.
This purely sucks. Will soon send $ towards ACSOL soon again.
@MC – There are at least two ways to ensure donated funds are used to oppose the SORNA regulations. First, you can donate using the “Donate” button and in doing so there is a “comment” section where you can add the donation is for that purpose. Second, you can mail a check to ACSOL at 1215 K Street, 17th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814 and add “SORNA” on the “memo” line of the check. If anyone wants to make a donation of $1,000 or larger to a charity and possibly receive a tax credit, please send email to me at jmbellucci@aol.com and I will provide further direction.
Registrants and supporters, don’t forget ACSOL in your estate planning. We are in this fight for the long run, and won’t give up until we win full justice for all registrants!
And if you are fortunate enough to have stocks that have gained value in this rally, you can donate them to ACSOL and receive benefits. Before you do, contact us to get the details.
@Janice, thanks, I’ll have someone reach out to you.
Tell them every time I leave the state for 7 or more days. Nah. I travel to see family and friends frequently. Can someone please tell me how and who would actually be able to enforce such a non sense law? I’m pretty sure they have their hand busy with other things.
(I have to wonder how much of this Federal SORNA rules expansion is a direct result of Jeffrey Epstein’s dumbass escapades. 🤔😠)
One reason so many States are not compliant with the federal law is because the federal law is expensive and requires keeping track of so much information. States with sparse populations will have trouble regularly with maintaining enough personnel to insure registry data is correct. Most of the updates need to be done in person so forget simply traveling to a registration office and think about the cost of having to personnel to go do checks across a state. In populous States the personnel might be around to a certain extent, but a few too many updates simultaneously in rapid succession would be problematic. All of this is on top of any State requirements which would complicate things rather quickly and get expensive just as fast.
Can someone explain this to me in a way I can understand? I know little about SORNA. So, is this a proposal for CA to adopt SORNA? If so, per SORNA Tier I has to register for 15 years, so why did CA fight for the Tiered Registry then? With the Tiered registry, Tier I has to register for 10 years. So, IF CA adopts SORNA, it will be 15 years regardless? I am just really confused. The whole Tiered registry was to get people off the registry because it got too big. Plus, for some now 4 times a year of registration will add a ton of paperwork that I thought they wanted to eliminate?
I have been on the registry for approximately 20 years. In all that time, I have been required to register once a year. One annual registration. Once per year. Now because of the offense I was convicted of 20 plus years ago, SORNA would have me register four times per each year. So, AG Barr and minions, please explain to me how I have suddenly become four times more dangerous than in all the preceding 20 preceding years this necessitating that I now register four times per year??
Furthermore, if all of my information remains exactly the same all year long, how would repeating it on registration documents four times per year be any more effective at protecting the public (the argument upon which the existence of registries are based) than simply providing all that unchanging information once per year?
You know David, our consicence is a gift from God and when aligned with faith and truth it is a guiding light that tells us right from wrong. Yes we all have our measures of faith some weak and some strong. Its sad that some may have none. Who can makes well being or a calamity. David a lot of this registry is down right pathetic.
The main purpose of any police or sheriff’s dept is to protect and serve the public but it appears to go above all this in these type of conspiricy,antagonism, or bribary in this debate scheme games via this internet use in many ways and means. Any law abiding citizen could get snared up in this type of trap by those officers pretending. Did David really kill or have relationships with another’s wife or did Moses really send out spy’s or who is under grace today. Thats why I like the many view’s of this forum or should I just kick the dust off my shoe’s and be on my way or should I say forgive them for they know not what they do. Now I have already said these view’s and comments are good but a good listeners takes much with a grain of salt.
You see David many try to figure out this tier level proposal that many take issue on or should we go with a passage or should one go with some man made mock up. I’m sure people don’t want to hear those things today as let God be true. Sure one can try people’s patience but forgiveness is blessed and yes grace can accomplish a lot of things or who is one’s rock in times of trouble. Maybe we all should go back to The Winstons and Color him Father. I watched a bit of soul train also. or do rattlesnakes creep out to bit us when one least expects it. One wonders if everyone wants to live in detention Hall the rest of their life and I would say many were in detention hall a few times on here.
But this registry and this teir level antagonism is real and I’m just glad Janice, Chance and a few others are pressing forward. So stopping this thing is good for all.
Why does the US Government keep saying that sex offenders have high recidivism rates when there study they did in 1994 show’s recidivism rates below 5%. The title of the study is ” Recidivism Rates of Sex Offenders Released from Prison in 1994 and you van find that on the Doj’s website
SCOTUS dismissed the Texas suit against four other states for not adhering to the rest of the country in running their elections. SCOTUS essentially stated it had no remedy for the suit and implied that states can do whatever they want to do in their states despite the election being a federal election. Thus, anything those 4 states in the Texas suit can do anything and it will accepted by the federally.
If our particular case of AG Barr trying to enforce a nationwide program for all to abide by equally, then CA doesn’t have to abide by the retroactive SORNA by the federal government. We can simply point to Texas vs 4 states, 2020 that says the states can pass their own laws and abide by their own laws. CA says this is how we see fit to run our own SOR program and you will simply have to accept it as per Texas v Mi, Pa, Wis, and Ga, 2020.
Does anyone else see it that way?
@ New Person: With regard to Texas versus Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, etc, Texas has no standing to sue the other states. Period. It’s none of Texas’s business how those other states choose to run their elections. If there is concern about election fraud, I guarantee you there are plenty of people in each of those states who are more than willing & able to sue the States’ elections officers for what they consider fraud, voting irregularities, etc. It’s not the job of Texas to sue other States.
With regard to California or any other state running their own SOR program, they can always do so, and likely do so at risk of losing federal funds. That’s how the federal government extorts states to do what they want: They threatened withhold federal funds. The states can still decide to do as they wish – with the awareness that federal funds are at risk of being forfeited.
So, I wonder, at what point do all the myriad State and federal laws, rules, requirements & restrictions become so overly convoluted and confusing and entirely unintelligible, that courts will finally recognize them as unenforceable due to excessive complication & contradiction???
(Similar perhaps to “void for vagueness”, but many of the laws, rules, requirements and restrictions are exceedingly precise – though nonetheless excessively convoluted, complicated and contradictory.)
Furthermore, all these damned laws, rules, requirements and restrictions are constantly being changed, amended, modified, etc. by every new jackass politician trying to make a name for him or herself.
Personally, I find it all incredibly confusing and frustrating and end up feeling that I will always be at risk of getting locked up for some petty infraction of which I’m totally unaware ……. even if I do my very best to follow all requirements.
How can there be no legal remedy for this when absolutely no one else convicted of anything else – violent assault, gun violence, domestic violence or DUI driving (all with much higher recidivism rates than SOs) – none of them have to suffer even one tenth of all these ridiculous restrictions applied to us, not to mention for the insane time frame of our entire lives??
They can take their federal SORNA, their IML, and all the rest of it and shove it right up they’re twisted GI tracts!! 😡😡😡
Newer SORNA thread is here:
https://all4consolaws.org/2020/10/acsol-and-allies-submit-formal-response-to-proposed-sorna-regulations/
So started watching a documentary last night on NetFlix called 13th which outlines the history in the U.S around mass incarcerations since the 1970s. Seems like there has been a powerful lobbying group called ALEC who literally writes these punitive laws on behalf of lawmakers in order to keep private prison populations full as possible. ALEC’s core has been big corporations who have special interests in certain laws being passed for monetary gain. Members of ALEC include all the major private prison corporations in this country and you can damn well be rest assured, that as none of these registration laws make any sense to us as to why they keep getting stricter and stricter while serving no public safety benefit, ALEC has been behind the scenes pushing for them. There is a site that serves as a watch dog on ALEC and sure enough you can find SOR laws being pushed by this lobby group:
https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC%27s_Model_Legislation_to_Pursue_and_Control_Child_Predators_Exposed
Follow the money folks! Without the money train, registries would not exist
Bill Barr to resign AG seat before Christmas https://www.npr.org/2020/12/14/811276917/william-barr-to-steps-down-as-attorney-general
I’m on the SOR in Arizona (Maricopa County). I’m a retired 72 year old. Sentence in 2013 for Public Sexual Indecency that by Arizona Statutes and stipulated in my court sentence, my offense is Non-Dangerous, Non-Repetitive, Not a dangerous crime against children, a low-level class-5 felony, a no-contact, non-violent offense. And I have no other felony sex offenses or violent offenses of any kind. My Probation evaluation puts me at the Lowest Risk category (based on testing). — In any case, the Phoenix Police Department who determines my Sex Offender LEVEL, has designated me as a Level-2 (rather than a Level-1 for someone who is a low risk to the community). Consequently, where ever I plan to live, I will be “Flyered” – Notice with my picture and info about my offense will be distributed throughout the neighbors/neighborhood. Thus, this old man CANNOT find suitable housing, putting my health and safety at stake. — Don’t know what to do, and I can’t afford an attorney.
After reading the Sorna-Proposed Rulemaking I am a little confused about something. If I read this correctly the Supreme Court ruled that they are not allowed to make this retroactive beyond when SORNA was introduced in February 2007. And I do believe I read it correctly that it included (people) sentenced and released before that date. So, my question is since I was sentenced on December 5th 2006 I don’t have to follow SORNA OR MEGAN’S LAW. Is there anyone who can help me out figuring out the truth.
Well, thank god we have housing restrictions lifted, since we won’t have anywhere left to go to. And hooray for the tier system! That was a waste of ______ energy, wasn’t it. Well at least those thousands of dollars spent reducing my felony to a misdemeanor won’t go to waste. Oh, wait, it did!