NARSOL is pleased to report that our efforts to end the practice of “No-candy” Halloween warning signs have borne fruit in Louisiana. This outcome is a direct result of the precedential case in Georgia NARSOL sponsored, McClendon v. Long.
A week before Halloween, 2023, NARSOL made the determination that three specific parishes in Louisiana were requiring everyone on the sex offender registry within their jurisdictions to post “No candy at this residence” signs on their house; in their yard; or, in one of the three, on the public easement directly in front of their residences. There are without question more parishes in Louisiana engaging in this practice, but for a variety of reasons—phone calls not returned; no one knowing the information or even who to ask; getting the information too late—only three were definitively identified in time for the next phase of the plan: Beauregard, St. Bernard and St. Tammany.
A letter addressed to the three sheriffs was prepared informing them that nothing in Louisiana law gave them the authority to take such action. They were reminded of the outcome of NARSOL’s legal action in 2019 against a sheriff in Georgia who persisted in placing very similar signs after we sent him a very similar letter; the Eleventh Circuit found against him, and, as the losing party, he not only was required to cease placing Halloween signs at registrants’ homes but also was required to pay attorney fees and expenses. Our letters asked the Louisiana sheriffs to abandon their plans to place the signs and to contact NARSOL within 24 hours as time before Halloween was short.