A federal judge ruled Monday that Tennessee’s sex offender registration act is unconstitutional, at least as it was applied retroactively to two offenders.
The ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee affects only the two men who sued, identified in court documents as John Doe #1 and John Doe #2.
“I think the ruling, while it is narrowly tailored to our clients, does open the door to the possibility of a class action,” attorney Ed Yarbrough said in an interview.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson had already ruled in February that parts of the law violated the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents people from being punished by a law passed after their crime was committed. On Monday, he ordered the state to stop enforcing any part of the law against the two plaintiffs and to remove their names from the sex offender registry.
Watch out michigan judge clem will do the same thing here
So, one more judge sees that ex post facto is unconstitutional in the registry! Great.
This big ole stinky onion is being pealed one layer at a time.
Whoopie, it doesn’t matter. In the recent case of Whilman VS United States, the sixth circuit found registrants are still obligated to register per SORNA, even if their state removes them (ie, new legislation, court decisions, etc). which sucks, but appears to be the case. Tennesse is also covered by the sixth circuit decision. The Sixth Circuit pretty much went the opposite of what they ruled in 2016 regarding Michigan’s Registry. Being removed from Tennessee’s registry, you are still “stuck” in the system
@ Stan: I am not familiar with the Whilman v. U.S. But even if one is still required to register with SORNA, the Federal SORNA Registry does not (yet🙄) have a public website. But, of course, It’s just a matter of time. 🙄