The wheels of justice are moving in California and across the nation. Perhaps the wheels of justice will take us to The Tipping Point where the public will recognize there is no need for registries and that those currently listed on a registry as well as their families will be allowed to lead peaceful and productive lives.
In California, a significant lawsuit was filed in federal court this week that challenges the SORNA regulations that became effective earlier this year. The lawsuit includes a request for an injunction which, if granted, would stop the enforcement of the SORNA regulations that threaten almost one million registrants with the possibility of up to 10 years in federal prison.
The SORNA regulations lawsuit is also significant because it was filed by a large organization that has the resources necessary to continue its challenge all of the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. ACSOL is a plaintiff in the lawsuit representing registrants and their families.
Also in California, the number of petitions that have been granted ending registrants’ requirement to register continues to grow. An assortment of attorneys, both in private practice and employed in Public Defenders’ offices, have filed these petitions. One data point is that 17 of the petitions I have filed thus far have been granted in nine different counties. And in San Diego County, more than 100 petitions have been granted.
Further, the appeal of a lawsuit is pending in California that challenges the exclusion of all registrants convicted of a felony sex offense from serving on a jury. The basis of the lawsuit is equal protection because the same legislation that excludes registrants allows individuals convicted of murder to serve on a jury.
Lawsuits are also pending in other states including Illinois and Connecticut. In Illinois, a lawsuit is pending that challenges the conviction of a registrant who visited a school campus. In Connecticut, a lawsuit is on appeal regarding whether the state can require registrants to disclose all email addresses.
What is the importance of these lawsuits? The lawsuits are important because they challenge laws that have been passed by cities and states that either prohibit registrants from doing something that others are allowed to do or they require registrants to do something that others are not required to do.
The number of lawsuits affecting registrants and their families has grown dramatically during the past 10 years and that number must continue to grow until we reach The Tipping Point. We must show lawmakers that there is a downside to passing new laws that harm registrants and their families. We must show lawmakers that the passage of such laws will hurt, not help, their chance of re-election.
Thank you, Janice 🙂
This gives us all hope that someday soon we may see the end of all of this injustice.
Great work on this piece of information!! We all thank you!!
I was absolutely shocked when I got jury duty in the mail!
I would not be able to serve because of a felony offense, but it was a small step to feeling normal. I keep it as hope as this too shall pass.
Thank you to Janice and the team for their tireless efforts this past decade!
“We must show lawmakers that the passage of such laws will hurt, not help, their chance of re-election.”
Janice, your last line says it all. Polichickens, ehh politicians, do have their priorities.
Thanks Janice. 🙂
Many thanks Janice for your work as a freedom fighter. The SORNA lawsuit is a huge step forward, and the petitions are a just use of the law that “we” got changed. There are still many steps to go, but we get closer to parity all the time.
This Memorial Day weekend, I give thanks for those who put their lives on the line to establish our freedom, keep our freedom, and work to make sure that everyone has an equal share of freedom.
“In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Mark J
Keep up the good fight Janice! We are so grateful!
I just hope those lawsuits will be heard by some of those rare, courageous judges of who will rule in favor of justice, fairness and equal treatment for all! 🙏🏻
Although I was aware of the no jury service I recently was going to volunteer to serve as a poll worker for the up coming election in California. To my suprise on the bottom of the form you need to fill out it explicitly said in big red letters that if you are a RSO you are ineligible.
Has this ever been challenged? Should it be challenged. I understand that some polling places are at schools or peoples homes. what if I wanted to offer my home as a polling place? Seems like this should also be challenged.
I think a case I would like to see happen soon is a challenge that if you are granted relief from duty to register in one state it should apply to other states. Heck our crime in said state is enough to trigger a separate registration in another state, then it should go both ways. Thank you for all your hard work!
Yall get ready for “Brittany’s Law” 🤦🏾♂️
Thank you Janice and your team for all the work you do. It sounds like amazing things are happening, hopefully as California law changes, so goes the rest of the country.
Janice, thank you for all the work you’ve done and are continuing on doing. This website (and formerly CA RSOL) meant a lot to me because it was a place where other people shared the struggle and depression of being registered. I’m ever grateful for this site b/c it was one of the things that kept me going.
Again, thank you for everything and everything into the future.
Any update on the lawsuit about those with 17b + 1203.4 being tier 3? Think it was filed in February.
Would it be possible to put a matrix together covering:
A. petition #s by county
B. Approved vs. rejected by offense
C. reasons given for rejection
D. The yrs on registry prior for each approval
This might help others when filing.
I respectfully disagree that the lawsuits will make the politicians act any differently. They can–and will–gin up fear in the public with all these nonsense laws. And when (not if) the courts strike them down, they can then rail against an “out of control” judiciary that is making “our kids” less safe.
What I do agree with is the notion that these many, varied, and increasing amount of lawsuits are starting to land blows and have effect. That any, let alone multiple, States are reconsidering PFR laws speaks volumes to the efforts of organizations like ACSOL, and ACLU-MI. The tides may not have turned, but they are turning.
Finally, the true data from academia and government are being put out there more and more for many to see. Though many will poo-poo academia as just being soft on PFRs, nobody argues about the governmental data. Those studies, IMO, are our strongest weapons.
Keep up the fight Janice, your work along with the rest, with God’s speed may put a end to the injustice that is going on behind so many peoples back with what the justice systems is doing to those that are registered and those that were registered yet still suffer from new laws that place more burden on them.
POLITICO: Delaware Senator C. Coons calls for “Stronger action” to protect fed. justices and their families. Why? The people! Which people? Those actively plotting protests and worse. The people protesting and complaining adjacent to the target’s home residence. Those seeking retribution. The example set “sex offender registrant” as an antecedent to the onerous over reliance. Congressional leadership from both sides established an electronic public shame game, and used the machine to promulgate it without process. SCOTUS upheld. And the people rejoiced! Fact is judges are now getting the people’s regulatory medicine themselves. In my opinion they’ve brought it on themselves and the whole with the Doe cases. Right down to the lack of adherence in Michigan. In plain words, the blatant lack of reverence for judicial authority by the people’s house of representatives. A retired WI judge just paid the ultimate price! Murdered in his own home and not by a sex offender. You can bet his home address was found on some database and not from a paper phone book. A fact very clear to Ms. Esther Salas, a fed. justice, who now moves to scrub. Surely her effort reflects certain judicial activism. Surely she insists on new law to protect her ilk from the database and the misuse thereof. Gee, it was perfectly civil activity to create a database with sex offenders home addresses, with caveat and disclaimer, to engage in public name calling and inevitably the imposing of additional affirmative restraint. Worst of all, to put a target on their backs.
Ultimately the people will, as they must, follow their leadership! To that end, resistance is futile…..you must comply.
Janice you have something right their with this article about these wheels of justice . While everyone likes justice it can be very slow but consider this type of justice. Is it defamatory in many ways, or is it vain and callous in this ordeal via some internet device, not to mention using a whorish con to tempt another. That even goes against biblical knowledge. Even the false statements by officers can be an insult to this injurious encounter considering the subject matter. The internet is a device and who knows who is on the other end duping another as in a scam type scenario. in many ways you are right and yes it does seem like the wheels of justice are turning or should one talk about blind justice.
I am a victim of a burial crime that changed my life. I ended up connecting to a guy who was willing to help me process what happened and because he was in prison for rape I guess I helped him do the same. I was able to heal a lot and we stayed friends for the 17 years of 28 he did in prison. I now moved to his home and we are on this weird path of just being. I was not doing so good when he got out. I was caught up in a domestic violent relationship . I ended up using his connection to develop a support system and planned to try unifications with my daughter in a residential program near my friend. The plan was to get my daughter when school was out and start my journey. My Childs father picked her up by her hair drunk and then ended up in ICU for the fifth time in a year from drinking. I went and got her from AZ and brought her to another state. my Daughters father and I were not married and he didn’t establish paternity because of restating order. He wanted to have complete control. I just asked him to get help for drinking and go to a therapist so he could be a dad. He was not accountable and when I visited for my Sons Graduation I took my kid to see him. He got emergency custody based on me allowing her to be around a sex offender. He knew about Ryan for 10 years and lived in Ryan’s house with his daughter . He just told the court he didn’t know and now I am a sex offender by proxy. I told Ryan’s CO and talked to his therapist and they both supported the fact she would join me. I haven’t seen my little girl in a month and her father has gotten away with the right to destroy another life.
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) is poised to issue a ruling in West Virginia v. EPA (docket number 20-1530). This a case regarding whether Congress unconstituitonally delegated rule making authority to the EPA. How the decision is written may have a direct inpact on the recent SORNA regulations from the Justice Department.
I’m sure Janice and the Pacific Legal Foundation are waiting for this one too. Keep prayers coming and your fingers crossed.