Source: ACSOL
A federal district court in Missouri has granted a permanent statewide injunction that prohibits the enforcement of a Halloween sign requirement in that state. As a result of this injunction registrants in Missouri will not be required to post a sign on their home on Halloween.
The permanent injunction does not apply, however, to the remaining Halloween restrictions that prohibit registrants from giving candy to children, decorate or their homes or leave on porch lights that day. Any registrant who violates those prohibitions could be convicted of a misdemeanor offense.
The permanent injunction was issued on October 3 about a year after the lawsuit was filed. A trial in the case took place in June 2024.
“We are pleased that the court has agreed that the Missouri Halloween sign requirement is unconstitutional,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.
Specifically, the court agreed that the Halloween sign requirement violates both the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitutions. In its decision, the court stated that the government failed to show that the Halloween sign requirement has or will protect public safety. The court also stated that registrants will suffer irreparable harm this year and every year thereafter on Halloween absent a permanent injunction.
Notices regarding the court order are being sent to more than 50 law enforcement agencies in the state of Missouri to ensure they are aware of that order. The defendants in this case have the right to appeal the court’s decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Below is the decision:
Missouri - Order re Halloween Sign-posting requirement
Excellent, thank you
Congratulations Janice, you are a force to be reckoned with! And congratulations MO PFRs! It’s a shame something this so obviously wrong and unconstitutional takes so much time and effort to change. How goofy that MO PFRs are still not allowed to leave their porch light on (eye roll). But we’ll take the win! Thank you for your hard work!
This is wonderful! Also couldn’t that statement from the court about “Irreparable Harm” caused by putting up a sign be used in cases challenging Megan’s law in general. Essentially what it speaks to is the singling out and exposure of this information and label is inherently dangerous and causes, in their words, “Irreparable harm” to people.
Wonderful!
But I would dearly love to know how it is legal for the state of Missouri to imprison a registrant (who, presumably, is under no criminal sanction) for 5 and 1/2 hours in his or her own home once a year on Halloween!
Awesome step in the right direction! The registry should not be public.The police have the info. If needed!
Great win ACSOL! This can be a springboard for other challenges in MO. If the websites purpose is to inform the public, why then must extra steps be made such as staying indoors? Are they admitting that the website serves little to no purpose? It’s one thing to list people on a website, a whole other to put them on house arrest for one day because children might or might not be outside. It’s absurd. I’d go for the house arrest piece of this next.
Honestly, I think it is the sheer and utter stupidity of the Registries that offends me more than anything. AND that seemingly way more than half the time, I think the Registry A**holes/Supporters/Terrorists (RASTs) love their little “laws” just because it allows them to be a**holes. I do believe that RASTs are much dumber than average people but I struggle to believe they are as dumb as they appear. So I attribute 30% of their crimes/harassment to being dumb and 70% to being pure a**holes. Seems about right.
These signs are obviously dumb and not needed. The loser parents should be supervising their children and not expecting big government to fake “protect” them. But it is insanely hilarious that the dumb, dumb, dumb MO criminal legislators didn’t have enough sense to specify exactly how the sign should look (e.g. size) and where it should be posted. I mean, how dumb can you be? If you were ACTUALLY serious about the signs?
Personally, I wouldn’t give a f*ck about posting any sign. The Registries cured me long, long ago about giving a single f*ck about what anyone thinks. So I wouldn’t really care about it other than it being truly stupid. If I did have to post any kind of sign though, I sure as hell would make my own signs that would be a lot bigger and better. That would be fun actually.
I asked my wife just tonight what she thought about me building a gallows out in front of one of our properties and hanging some Registry politicians there. I’ve been wanting to do that for years. The gallows would be easy but I’d want to find someone who could make some good dummies to hang. I’ll probably never get around to doing it. But maybe. It does sound fun.
So anyway, I wouldn’t care about the signs much, but the house arrest would be 100% unacceptable. Already, because the Registries exist, I go out of my way to be around children all the time. I mean, I live a normal life so that is pretty much normal anyway. But I do make special efforts to do that on a regular basis. I especially do that on Halloween. Just because the Registries deserve it. If a criminal regime told me that I could not leave my house, I guarantee there would be problems.
I’ve always felt a little entitled. It is getting worse with age. And the Registries make me feel like I have carte blanche to be more so. But I know I live a blessed life that I don’t really deserve. So many people have it so bad that I can’t complain much about the Registries, especially since I’ve nearly completely neutered their punishments/harassment.
This is a victory? It seems to me that forbidding the government from compelling someone to display a sign, while allowing the government to unlawfully hold the person under house arrest, is tantamount to making the government let an unlawfully condemned person choose the color of his shirt when he is being executed.
Praise God!!!!!!! Another win!! And the court even stated the government can’t prove those signs would protect anybody!! It would be nice if they applied the same logic to the registry!
Congrats @ACSOL!
I would say, Yes, a well crafted argument about the registry could be had with a base stemming from this opinion and others like it on the same matter as well as maybe stamps on DLs/IDs being struck down. However, let’s see if the MO legal wizards want to take it up a notch to the 8th first before getting overly excited. They have 30 days to appeal.
With enough anti-marking/sign case opinions to use, it is only logical to step it up to the passport and registry. Is there another state who makes signs appear at this time of year that a challenger wants to challenge?
Before anyone claims that this is a “win” I’d like to remind you that this is merely a concession that was granted for those off paper.
A “win” – actually worth celebrating – will only happen when all get absolution.from the daily drudgery this label imposes.
Thank you Janice!
I’d like to see the Sheriff of Greene County Missouri served with this injunction and with a Cease and Desist order based on the fact that the dumb a** seems to think injunctions don’t count in his jurisdiction. I dare him to try to ignore this injunction. Those unconstitutional actions should theoretically make him lose his qualified immunity. Then we can personally sue his a**!!!!!!
Janice,
I thought you would like to know. I received an email this morning from a public defender, Mr. Ryan Williams. He informed me that in my sending out an alert notice email with the federal court order in the case you litigated, to every public defender, in Missouri, this morning, it has helped a registrant charged with failing to display the Halloween sigh last year. See Missouri Casenet Case No. 23AH-CR00414. The motion to dismiss the criminal case against Mr. Robert Marshall was filed this morning along with the federal court order.
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’ I’m sure that Missouri will appeal the decision they don’t, like changing the rules when it’s in favor of registrant’s. I don’t think they could overturn this though. One brick at a time and the wall will come down, I think Courts are seeing that this whole S.O.R.N.A scheme is outdated, and is being picked apart more and more all the time, What a waste of resources for the Taxpayer’s have no choice but to comply and play along with it all.