Today 10 legal professionals from six different states submitted a formal response to the U.S. Department of Justice regarding proposed SORNA regulations that could adversely affect the daily lives of almost one million people required to register as a sex offender. The response is 36 pages long and includes a request that the federal agency issue revised regulations and allow for additional comments from the public in the future.
“ACSOL and its allies have prepared a comprehensive response to the proposed SORNA regulations,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The federal government now has an important decision to make, that is, to ignore the responses it has received and issue a final regulation or to change the regulations in accordance with those responses.”
The ACSOL and Allies response includes the following major points:
- Clarify that a registrant’s duty to act under SORNA is triggered only by interstate travel or other circumstances supporting federal jurisdiction.
Elimination of the requirement that registrants report their intended departure from or termination of residence in a state prior to interstate travel.
Clarify that a registrant’s compliance with SORNA is a two-party transaction that depends upon his state’s acceptance of the information provided by the registrant. - Eliminate the proposed regulations shifting of the legal burden from the government to the registrant regarding “affirmative defenses” such as a registration office’s refusal to register an individual more than once a year.
- Eliminate the requirement to disclose “remote communications identifiers”.
- Eliminate the requirement to report unspecified information with “whatever definiteness is possible under the circumstances.”
- Clarify that the reduction in the duration of registration obligations for Tiers 1 and Tiers 3 are automatic.
- Conduct a federalism assessment to quantify the financial burden of the obligations upon states and local governments.
The legal professionals who worked on this effort include attorney Adele Nichols of Illinois, attorney Chance Oberstein of California, attorney Jill Sanders of New York, attorney Richard Gladden of Texas, attorney Janice Bellucci of California, law professor Ira Ellman, Amber Vlangas of the Restorative Action Alliance, Guy Hamilton Smith of Kentucky, Tara Ellman of California and Carlton Morse of California.
Download a PDF of comments by ACSOL to Proposed Rule – Dkt. No. OAG 157 – Oct. 12, 2020
Was there any mention of the Tiers mandated at State level (such as the CA Tiered Registry) versus the Tiers mandated at the federal level?
Under the Sorna regulations MANY more registrants would be placed in Tier II and III which would include home and work addresses on ML.
One could argue that a requirement to continuously try to register, when exempted under state law, would be likened to a probation/parole condition. See, United States v. Neel, 641 F. App’x 782 (10th Cir. 2016).
In this case, the offender was exempt from registration under the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision; however, the federal judge ordered him as part of his federal FTR probation conditions to attempt to register every 90-days and if refused, to provide the proof of refusal to federal probation officers to avoid being violated.
Once you’re forced to register your life is pretty much over so I dont understand why the federal government needs to step in and apply even more pressure/punishment with SORNA to every one’s lives the state of California dont need any help keeping their boot on sexofenders necks .
Only time will tell how California new teir laws will go or how DOJ will handle the whole situation one thing we do know is that alot of SB384 changes were done behind closed doors at the last minute in order to get the bill passed they had to sacrifice a certain type of sexofender mostlly one’s labeled SVP’S pedophiles and habitual offenders so to please the California politicians theses offenders have been handed over for life time punishment.
The registry in California is way to big and impossible to manage and i know its costing California alot time and money monitoring offenders who were convicted 20/35 years ago I’m pretty shore its boring as hell putting on all that tactical gear just to go knock on a 75 year old man’s door to see if he’s home and once the offender is found in compliance they have no more power over the registrant and have to get in their cars and leave sounds like a bunch of wasted time and California is over it .So if the federal government wanna take over the monitoring of sexofenders and is gonna fit the bill then so be it.
Well done everyone that helped and contributed to the public comments!
We did what we could do. Now let’s hope that the people that are making decisions there have brains and common sense in their heads.
😁 I submitted my (layman/non-lawyer) comments to the USDOJ this evening.
(At the time I submitted my comments, the USDOJ had received 650+ comments.) 👍
NOTE: The Federal Regulations website indicated the USDOJ had received 790 comments to their proposed Rules prior to the 11:59 p.m. EST Comment Submission Deadline.
I live in a SORNA compliant state and I had family as well as friends submit comments. Smith vs. Doe was the biggest failure of the start of the 21st century. It’s time for registrants to have their civil rights and life restored to sanity. SORNA should be Stop Oppressive Restrictions Never Again!!
@ACSOL/Janice
Besides Oregon and yourself, did any other SOL/Voices organizations submit comments? If so, can they be gathered so they can be read? Would be interesting to read them.
I live in Texas. I came off paper in 2014. My offence was settle in court in 2004. I received 10yr. deferred adjudication probation. completed successfully. I am designated as “Low Risk” i.e. tier 1. Burt, my charge was agg sex assault of a child. First degree felony. In Texas a deferred adjudication once completed is dismissed by the judge as a non conviction by state statute. However, I am still required to register annually for life! If this SORNA modification goes through, and I am sure it will, will I be reclassified as a SVP and have to register every 90 days? My contract was with the state of Texas not the feds. I think this could be successfully challenged in court. I can see a class action suit. there are 100,000 registered citizens in Texas. Shout out to Richard Gladden. I live in your area. Lets sharpen the blades! If this comes down I am leaving the country……..if they will let me……
Basic question for Janice. If they go ahead and make these proposals law, what happens next? Tens of thousands of us will fall under new Sorna requirements, but if our state is non-SORNA, how will that work?
Even if the state IS SORNA, does that make this automatic? Do we immediately commit a federal crime of FTR by default if we don’t figure out a way to comply? Sounds like that’s what they want.
Someone awhile back mentioned these are outgrowths from Epstein. Could be. Could also be because SCOTUS reaffirmed the AG power delegated by Congress in US v.Gundy. They’re running with it.
Janice – What is he earliest possible date that this could become regulation?
A good thing to know for those of use that are thinking about legally leaving the land of the free and the brave.
so if i have a 288 a lewd n lascivvious, from 1988 calf were does that put me on the sorna fed tier????
Oh my what a bloat of confused people on the registry. Tim with his solution to the world turned upside down by data or some computer geek prossal or John Doe’s voter strikes about idea’s and rules to Ditto’s its a hard nut to crack. Well what has man not screwed up. One wonders if the world today wasn’t a big bang boom computer theory and we are all cyber robots.
Sounds drab to me. So the story of creation was all in a proposed computer data base. Guess one doesn’t meed the bible from everyone’s view point. But what about wrongful persusasion or childern of malice and when I say children I’m talking about adults acting lipke kids. So who’s turning the other cheek?
This whole SORNA issue is so out of the blue that anyone could see right thru it. So if one wants to compaire facts with true principal go to the main source which is the bible and some of you all have said I quote I don’t have time for that. Guess one had time to pay their fines even a speeding ticket or group therspy, etc.
Now from what Safer Virginia has just e-mailed me and they are a part of NARSOL affiliate group is that is that we are all classified as tier offender and not sex offenders. I am puzzled on that one, guess its for stepping out of line or forgetting to send porno pictures, who knows when authorities present this ordeal upon another..,, I’m sure if anyone wants to read about this here is the look up https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+ful+CHAP0829 course this is Virginia’s legislation but I’m sure its like retroactive all over the USA.
I am willing to go with several of you guys in a group and sound off about all this mockery of Justice. I’m sure its just as dizzy in California. Even much of this incarceration is a bit much not to mention these other head rushes and those that want to commit suecide. This whole SORNA thing is an inbalance and a type of corruption of Justice……or should we all say blesses is the peacemaker or what is a database of mass destruction.
I don’t understand how anyone can be confused by this? Even if the charge was 50 years ago you will have to register for 15, 25 or life. Guess what else even after you completed your time on the registry in the state that you reside in, you still have to register for another 15, 25 or life. You have to start from the beginning or start all over again. This is the floor and not the ceiling.
huh… if you’re in Florida, then there is a silver lining. You don’t have to continue to be on the registry after you’re done registering, right?
Because if you do have to continue to register, then why do states have to conform to SORNA at all? And if SORNA is applied nationwide, then lowest legal age of consent is 16 years of age, IIRC. You cannot apply SORNA when all states have different ages of consent because that would violate equal protections. And if in those states that allow one off the registry earlier than SORNA’s 15, 25, and lifetime terms, then the federal government has increased time on the registry. We already have a few states that have shown that it is punitive to add onto the original agreement.
There seems to be holes to applying a nationwide thing to states that did not originally conform.
How can we except an ethical system when the people in charge think ethics doesn’t apply to them. If a President is confident in their re-election they shouldn’t be ramming regulations down millions of American’s throats. I will not bend over for government to screw me some more, f the government and their unethical behavior and practices.
I was researching the reduction in tier time because I thought there was one such as 15-years to 10-years and 25-years to 20-years. I stumbled upon this proposal on Oct 13, 2020: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/13/2020-15804/registration-requirements-under-the-sex-offender-registration-and-notification-act
This excerpt has me scratching my head:
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The Justice Department’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (“SMART Office”) administers the national standards for sex offender registration and notification under SORNA and assists all jurisdictions in implementing the SORNA standards in their programs. See id. 20945. As provided by SORNA, the Department of Justice also (i) prosecutes SORNA violations by sex offenders committed under circumstances supporting Federal jurisdiction, see 18 U.S.C. 2250; (ii) assists in the enforcement of sex offender registration requirements through the activities of the U.S. Marshals Service, see 34 U.S.C. 20941; (iii) operates, through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Sex Offender Registry, which compiles the information obtained through the sex offender registration programs of the states and other registration jurisdictions and makes it available on a nationwide basis for law enforcement purposes, see id. 20921; and (iv) operates the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public website, http://www.nsopw.gov, which provides public access through a single national site to the information about sex offenders posted on the public sex offender websites of the various registration jurisdictions, see id. 20922.
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“Provides public access through a single national site” is the federal government stating it is posting individual’s information on their manufactured town square for the whole nation and world. This now surpasses the threshold that the registry is not akin to a town square as intimated in the 2003 Smith v Doe SCOTUS decision. This is punishment as it essentially puts every registrant in a stockade for all to see 24/7 at behest of the government under penalty of law.
The problem I am seeing is that it seems like it will always be the worse of the two. If under Sorna, you are a Tier 3 (25 ) years, but if your State requires Lifetime, you will be Lifetime. And if your State requires 10 years for Tier I, under SORNA you will be 15 years. It sounds like everyone will be screwed regardless. Why do States even have their own rules and regulations when the Feds can just apply their own? This just does not make sense whatsoever.
Is the new SORNA pretty much Barr’s baby (or legacy)? Will he try to ram it down the state’s throats before he leaves office?
I imagine that the new US AG candidate will be announced before the inauguration. Would it be a good idea to contact him (or her) preemptively to express our concerns and opinions about SORNA so that maybe he can be on top of or hopefully toss it out all together before he gets tied up with the the rest of the minutiae of his job?
Since I am a misdemeanor 311.11(a) , and intend to leave country , the SORNA application to my offense seems to be good news for me. I really could care less what California does. I just want to be able to move around internationally without a tag hanging off my passport everywhere I go.
I’m a bit worried about this with Merrick Garland the likely Attorney General. If you look at his record as a judge he has consistently sided with what law enforcement wants regardless of the circumstances. Further his record as an appellate court judge has him upholding Smith v Doe in registrant ex post facto cases which make a claim that a current registry law goes beyond a civil regulation. If indeed these proposed changes are coming from the SMART office and the AG is just the final decision maker I see this being adopted based on his record.
I am just listening to the phone meeting from 2/20/21 about the proposed SORNA regulations. I am a little confused because it was said that SORNA regulations are technically unlawful, especially in non SRONA states like CA. So, how did some States end up being a SORNA state if it is unlawful? Shouldn’t all States only have to abide by State laws?
Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice is conducting several civil rights investigations into various police departments around the country. If they are so concerned about civil rights, I wonder if they will be reviewing their own proposed SORNA regulations as they violate PFRs’ civil rights??