ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci is the featured speaker in The War Room on Tuesday, July 27 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time (not 6 p.m.!). The focus of her presentation will be the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Smith v. Doe, which determined that registration is not punishment and therefore new registry laws can be applied retroactively.
“The U.S. Supreme Court made a terrible mistake when it decided the case of Smith v. Doe in 2003,” stated Bellucci. “This single decision has caused significant harm to at least one million individuals and their families including vigilante violence, homelessness, unemployment and social death.”
During oral argument in this case, attorney John Roberts (now Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) stated that sex offense registration is the same as applying for membership at Price Club. However, in one of the two dissents in this case, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that the sex offense laws at issue in the case were “onerous and instructive obligations” that expose registrants to “profound humiliation and community-wide ostracism.” She also stated that the same registration laws “resemble historically common forms of punishment” that “retributively target past guilt.”
“After this terrible decision was issued, a few state supreme courts and one federal Circuit Court of Appeal have issued decisions that give us hope that Smith v. Doe may ultimately be reversed,” stated Bellucci. “My presentation will include a discussion of those cases as well as a major announcement that could educate both the public and the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Click here for more information about this meeting on the WAR website
About the WAR Room:
The WAR Room is a public service provided by Women Against Registry that provides a voice to registrants, family members and those who support them. The moderator of the WAR Room is Mike Woodall. The WAR Room is broadcast the 2nd Tuesday and 4th Tuesday of every month and the speakers following me will be Lenore Skenazy on Aug. 10, Rory Fleming on Aug. 24, and Dr. Gene Katz on Sept. 14. WAR is an advocacy group as well as an ally of ACSOL.
Click below to listen to Janice Bellucci’s portion of WAR Room #8— July 27, 2021
Click below to listen to a recording of the entire WAR Room #8 program — July 27, 2021
Janice begins at about 49:25 minutes into the recording.
THE REGIME:
Plain human indenture to the erection of an electronic monument to human selfishness and stupidity.
Slavery to properly, however imposed, is always profitable for some of the people and they’ll fight to the death to preserve it’s utility.
I am excited and thankful that this case is being discussed again. It is the main reason we are in this mess, and I wish you all the luck with your presentation that will be no doubt extraordinary and well prepared. Thanks for all you do!
I will do my beet to attend!
(Stupid SCOTUS! Stupid Smith v. Doe! 😠)
I will do my best to attend!
I will be watching. This is very good news. A lifetime of registering is CERTAINLY an additional penal colony one must endure for life. It needs to go. It is time.
Thank you!
I guess my main concern would be if the laws can be applied retroactively then wouldn’t that mean the same thing for the laws that we don’t want to be put in place could be applied retroactively and therefore cause further harm in some instances?
It would be good if you were to say what “The War Room” actually is.
Janice, you are amazing.
From reading past rulings and retroactive laws that have screwed so many of us, I look at any appearance before the supreme court as it pertains to Offender rights as poking a sleeping bear. Especially now that the conservative majority has so many of what would be considered basic human rights teetering on the edge. Voting, abortion, LGBTQ . All are in jeopardy. Reminding them of our plight might just wake them up to doing more harm, if that is even possible. Good luck anyway Ms. Bellucci.
For me it didn’t feel like a punishment at first. It felt like ‘my name is on a list…so what?’ This is 1986. There was no Megans Law yet.
Then came Megans Law.
In the mid 90’s anyone who wanted to look at the registry had to go to the local police station and sign in to view the names on a special CD. That all changed when the website came. This was the starting point for the slow deterioration of my life. After a few years, the website had become the go-to source for landlords and employers (not to mention the occasional nosey person). Every sex crime that came out on the news had the public searching online for possible perpetrators living near them. To say this is not a punishment is a flat out lie. Did anybody study the mental impact that life on the registry would have for the individual and his family? No. Why? Because nobody cared.
It almost feels a little like some form of retaliation. You are never really free. It’s like a part of you belongs to them. This is why I feel the true punishment will be the hardships to come because of being on the registry.
When I saw War Room i thought of Steven Bannon’s podcast. That would be an interesting interview for Janice.
We had actually an investigator from the SO unit show up at our place, and he went to the neighbors telling them they need to be careful having my fiancé live next door. That was about 10 years ago and I did not know our rights back then. I know he stepped completely out of line and we should have filed a complaint. Registry not deemed punishment? We all know the answer to that.
I sincerely hope past Honorable RBG will be remembered her words were powerful truth with the other man disent as guilt for ever of membership in a DC/Wareh.Club for life. He doesn’t value nor had tough times like she did. I honor her as an American in History Female of power with such Modesty role alike Jesus C. She WILL be missed.
Janice I hope you will be able to remind others at that War Room mtg on this twenty-seventh this month that others will NOT forget and wake up the fight for human rights for RC’s. THANK YOU for doing this and ALL You and ACSOL and Chance does.
CHARGE! You generally get your point across ALL except the Fed Fem Bench Judge in OAK years back, she was Not just BLIND but to Deaf Ears…hers. Not the public.
I honestly feel like the Riverside County public defender office didn’t want to help me because I was a registrant Lawanda Martinez and all those guys running a Fresh Start program and every Fresh Start program in Southern California are being a little bias probably for their own personal reputation but they signed up to be a public servants
I think Janice needs to drop all of them an email and let them know you can’t just react off your own personal emotions and the 290 registered Community is watching them.
Also I think Janice Bellucci and chance should file their own personal petitions and charge $3000 for every petition Not only would that be helping registrants it would help acsol and the whole movement
Kick some butt, Janice !!!
Janice for AG!!!
Is it true that if you are not in Megan’s law nor do I have any case history of anything other than indecent exposure I apparently fall under 10 year registration an attorney is optimistic of getting my case in court and getting me off registration completely another attorney says otherwise what’s the truth here thanks 🙏