Source: ACSOL
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied review of the petition filed by the Missouri Attorney General in the Halloween sign challenge. In its decision, the Court noted that only one justice, Justice Samuel Alito, favored review of the petition.
“The Court’s decision today is a significant victory for registrants who reside in Missouri as well as registrants throughout the nation,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “It its denial, the Court has acknowledged that Halloween sign requirements are unconstitutional.”
The original complaint in this case was filed in October 2023 in a federal district court in Missouri. In the complaint, plaintiff Thomas Sanderson argued that the state law that required him to post a sign on his home on Halloween was compelled speech and therefore violated the First Amendment. A trial was held in in the case in June 2024 resulting in a decision issued in October 2024 that agreed with Sanderson’s legal argument. The trial court decision also included a statewide permanent injunction that prevented the Attorney General from enforcing the state law at issue.
The Attorney General of Missouri appealed the trial court decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2025. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately agreed with the trial court in its decision issued in January 2026 that the Missouri Halloween sign law was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment. However, the appellate court returned the case to the trial court in order to review the permanent statewide injunction due to the U. S. Supreme Court decision, Trump v. CASA, which was issued after the trial court issued the injunction. After its review, the trial court decided that the injunction applied only Mr. Sanderson.
The Attorney General of Missouri filed a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court on July 6, 2026, requesting the Court’s review of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. An amicus brief was filed on behalf of 16 states in support of the petition on August 3, 2026. A brief opposing the petition was filed by Mr. Sanderson on September 8, 2026, and the Attorney General filed a reply brief on September 22, 2026.
“Today’s victory is the result of a long legal battle at every level of the federal court system,” stated Bellucci. “It is yet another example that tenacity and hard work produce desired results.”
Related link:
10/19/26 A sex offender made fancy Halloween displays. The state tried to keep kids away [usatoday.com]
Click here to read the letter from the US Supreme Court:
Way to go, Janice! Thanks from all of here in FL!!
So, even though the injunction was decided in favor of Mr. Sanderson only by the trial court, the MO AG cannot enforce the sign requirement, and neither can the city of Hazelwood due to the US Supreme court affirming unconstitutionality? Is that a correct understanding, if so it is an extraordinary win. Just wish that courts in misery got instructions on how to implement SB982 post 08.28.26 as some of us are still waiting for the courts to apply that so we can be free of this whole circus.
HUGE WIN FOR JANICE, ACSOL, and REGISTRANTS! Yay and congrats to all! What a great way to start the week. Janice, thank you so much for your relentless pursuit of justice on our behalf. I hope the Missouri AG and the 16 states in the Amicus brief have learned a little something about the constitution. I am sure Alito was ready to support the Halloween sign and Missouri AG, but he won’t get the chance.
Thank you, Janice.
THANK YOU so much, Janice, for coming to Missouri and showing this bass-ackward state how it’s done!!!!!
Congrats Janice and team! Thank you for all the hard work you are doing, it is deeply appreciated!
@Janice and @ACSOL
Congrats! While I am not a fan of our country’s legal system as it continues to degrade as it lives today, this is a spark of brilliance by the high court, finally, and on this very topic finally. May the ripple effect of this denial and overall case reach everywhere where our Flag is planted.
Most excellent news! Thank you to ACSOL and Janice and all those involved for bringing home this victory!
Praise be to God, and thank you, Janice!!
Well done!!
I would also say it’s compelled speech when a registrant is NOT allowed to hang up or display Christmas decorations.
That also is a violation of the 1st amendment!
Thank you once again, Janice, I’ve always been worried that someone in the CA legislature would dredge up the sign issue again, for those off paper.
Janice, You are a bad-ass attorney! I have been following this closely, and your tenacity has truly paid off. Outstanding job. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication.
Janice! Janice! Janice!
I almost wish they had granted certiorari, by the supposed split opinions among the circuits as described by the Missouri AG (the stupid signs vs. general SORNA disclosures). But I’m not the least bit shocked that cert was denied here.
I would really like to think that this issue is finally dead. But I’m still willing to bet some sheriff somewhere is going to try it again, next year if not this.
Fantastic! Congratulations and thank you!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/19/supreme-court-sex-offenders-candy-halloween-signs-missouri/92137561007/
I wish they would have taken the case so that we could establish that forcing someone to sign the “posted” registration is the same as the halloween sign
Thank you from the bottom of my heart Ms. Bellucci you are one awesome human being. This goes to show that you can’t beat a dead horse as they say. But as I’ve read through the comments, fears of it being brought up again. Sad we live in a system that cannot honor its own official rulings. In some way I hope it gets brought up again to further extending the fight but on the other hand I hope it never gets brought up again because of the tragedy of struggles and demoralization that comes from it, but it seems inevitable. There needs to be something stating how these people in power abuse the system as a means to get a vote for being a so called champion of the people. People are STARTING to open their eyes to the corruption of the system but there’s still alot that turn a blind eye especially on a topic like this. Me personally I believe it was designed that way just for that reason. I’ve spoke multiple attorney within my state and the one that legitimately spoke to me professionally was saying that every lawyer withing the state(kentucky) knew the program was rigged from the start because there’s no wiggle room in the court system for a fight against it. They then continued on stating that it was unconstitutional as a whole because it allowed for emotional bias into the court room. And it does. I’ve seen it numerous times. But having to prove that point of emotional bias is a hard argument to prove. I still believe that there needs to be a definitive and detailed definition of criminal punishment vs. Civil regulatory scheme. Keep up the hard work, definately not going unseen and very much appreciated. Youve moved alot of milestones in the past year and still keep pushing. Keep up the good fight.
I wonder if this gives any impetus to the idea of the NON-PUNITIVE, NON-PUNISHMENT civil administrative registry policy being compelled speech as well?
Congrats, Janice!!!
I am curious, but would this be your first case and win at the SCOTUS level? Several years ago you became certified to be a lawyer at the SCOTUS level and now you represented someone’s petition to not review the case at the SCOTUS level because of the four points not to review it.
I hope this will be the first of many wins for you at the SCOTUS level.
The Mummy’s Hand: Missouri Edition (2000–2026)
Written by Quiet too long
Once upon a Halloween night, in a quiet Missouri neighborhood, a slow-moving hand crept through the streets—not dragging bandages, but wielding signs and snuffing out porch lights. It didn’t knock. It didn’t speak. It just placed. One sign at a time. One bulb extinguished. A lawless ritual of prejudice disguised as protection. The residents ran. Some lingered behind to work in the shadows, painting, breaking, slithering through the streets unnoticed in the gloom, undocumented. The fleeting mob ran ten times faster than the hand. They sprinted past ordinances, leapt over injunctions, and hurdled constitutional protections that were in place. But the hand didn’t chase. It didn’t need to. With everyone gone, it had all the time in the world to finish its inexcusable tasks. Only later—too late—did the frightened crowd realize: the hand wasn’t supernatural. It wasn’t unstoppable. It was just a force of fear, cloaked in legal ambiguity and prejudice. And all it ever took to stop it… was to stand in its way.
Haunting Figures & Violations (2000–2025)
Across all 50 states, no child was abducted from a registrant’s home on Halloween between 2000 and 2024. In 2023, U.S. Marshals conducted 1,716 compliance checks across 15 counties in 11 states. These led to: 19 arrests for failure to register, 12 arrests for unrelated warrants (e.g., firearms, narcotics), and 0 arrests for Halloween-related crimes or abductions.
Vandalism Spike on Sign Placement (2008–2023)
Missouri’s Halloween sign law began in 2008, requiring registrants to post signs and extinguish lights. During enforcement years, vandalism in affected neighborhoods rose by 10% compared to prior years. Nearly 60% of Halloween-related crimes involved vandalism or property damage. In 2024, after the injunction in Doe v. Keathley, the signs were removed—and no documented increase in vandalism occurred.
Untracked Harm
No jurisdiction tracked vandalism at registrants’ homes as a separate category. But signs posted under threat of law—on porches, gates, and mailboxes—may have invited more than compliance. Some registrants reported harassment, damage, and intimidation. These incidents were rarely documented, but never unfelt. The law compelled silence. The signs invited targeting. And the state recorded none of it.
Constitutional Reckoning
On October 2, 2024, a federal judge issued a permanent statewide injunction in Doe v. Keathley, striking down Missouri’s Halloween sign law as unconstitutional compelled speech. The plaintiff was never charged with a crime—yet Missouri dispatched five police officers to confront what they believed was a misdemeanor in progress. The case now moves to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, with oral argument scheduled for September 16, 2025, where the state seeks to overturn or narrow the injunction.
Truth Prevails
No abductions. No porch crimes. Just signs. Just silence. Just fear. The vandalism rose when the signs were placed. The silence deepened when the signs were removed. And the truth—after 24 years—finally prevailed.
The Mummy’s Hand: Missouri Edition (2026 Epilogue)
Then, in 2026, something unexpected happened.
As dormancy fell upon the hand from 2024 to 2026, as most villainous apparitions do, the hand began to quiver once more. Bumps of life formed throughout the entity’s shape, bubbling and blistering back into form as Cases 24-3120, Thomas Sanderson v. Catherine Hanaway, and 24-3204, Thomas Sanderson v. James Hudanick, began to breathe life back into it.
The hand reached once more for its bundle of signs.
As their chants and dances worked around the Book of Awe, they failed to notice that someone stood in its way.
Not a mob. Not a frightened crowd running ahead of it. Just a determined advocate armed with a trap in the form of the Constitution, years of flinging litigation, and an unwillingness to step aside. The badass lawyer whom all the hands feared, Janice Bellucci, confronted the misguided hand at the end of a long legal road and finally trapped it. The hand had traveled through trial courts, appellate courts, and all the way to the steps of the nation’s highest court. Yet there it met a barrier it could not pass.
The signs fell from its grasp.
And the hand, no longer free to place signs or compel speech, was left with a different task.
Today, the hand remains a hand of the state, but one directed toward responsibilities more fitting of government: protecting communities, enforcing constitutional laws, guiding traffic where needed, and serving the public rather than branding and defiling it. The hand was never destroyed. It was simply reminded of what its job was supposed to be.
And so, after a quarter century of fear, confusion, signs, and silence, the story ended not with a monster’s victory, but with its reform.
The hand still exists.
It just no longer carries the signs, but will be wary forevermore of the fearless Janice Bellucci.
Disclaimer
This entry reflects publicly available data, coalition testimony, and survivor-centered analysis. The reported 10% increase in vandalism during Missouri’s Halloween sign enforcement years (2008–2023) is based on comparative neighborhood incident logs and seasonal crime trends. No jurisdiction tracked vandalism at registrants’ homes as a separate category. No legal advice is offered. No admission of guilt is implied. No endorsement of state mandates is made. All formatting, symbol choice, and jurisdictional framing are preserved for archival integrity. The ‘Book of Awe’ symbolizes the U.S. Constitution, representing the ultimate authority of law that the ‘hand’ attempts to manipulate, but which ultimately serves as the instrument of its containment.”
I remember in the mid to late 90s Texas judges had people put warnings of SO lives here signs in peoples yards.
Congrats !!!! Keep fighting !!!
If a AG is dumb enough to challenge a sex offense law then they have another thing coming. Could you imagine selling t-shirts, bumberstickers/signs/flags, purses/handbags for women and wallets for men, sling shots for kids, and talking dumbies looking like politicians to raise funds for lawsuits? Janice Badss Bellucci products funding lawsuits till sanity comes sex crimes.
I know there’s a line of thinking that says the high court did not rule on this case at hand. However, they did rule in a sense of denying cert to the MO AG, et al who signed on to the case.
While it would be helpful to know for what reason(s) they denied cert, e.g., not enough votes to accept, didn’t accept the reasoning stated (split circuits), etc., this becomes a line in the sand to other states to think twice about enforcing such a law or even challenging the challenge a PFR may present to such a law. This losing challenge couples with the other two Fed cases from the Bible Belt which are similar to this one in creating a pretty decent foundation of prohibiting this action.
Frankly, I dare LE to attempt to enforce this action if there is such a law in place that isn’t already prohibited by these opinions. Would love to see the prohibition spread into other districts, other circuits so PFRs aren’t just protected, but the US Constitution is fortified as it should be and not diluted as we’ve seen too much of late by those in robes and elected offices.
This is great news!!!! Now if we can get the drivers license marker taken care of in oklahoma.
The letter my son received from the Sheriff here in Missouri about Halloween restrictions this year did not include posting a sign on the door. Thank you Janice!