Source: reason.com 3/25/26 Most matters enjoy too little moral agreement to make fertile ground for government intervention The moral argument for not making laws about many—especially victimless—activities is that people have a right to live their own lives so long as they don’t hurt anybody else. That’s a convincing case for those of us who naturally gravitate to a live-and-let-live take on life. But it’s unpersuasive to the growing ranks of those inclined to control freakery in these illiberal times, and who believe the state should step in to…
Read MoreAuthor: R H
PA: Two boys made deepfake porn of 60 girls. It left a school, small town reeling
Source: usatoday.com 3/23/26 LANCASTER, PA – It’s hard to describe the city of Lancaster as anything other than quaint. Its vibrant but small downtown is peppered with coffee shops, bookstores and friendly locals. It has charm in abundance. The same can be said for the upscale Lancaster Country Day School, a K-12 private school in the area that hosts just over 600 kids. They frolic around in matching uniforms and play on crisp green grass once school lets out. Perhaps that’s why the AI-generated sexual abuse scandal that recently rocked this town…
Read MoreCA: Starbucks Fired Clovis Sex Offender. Now He’s Suing.
Source: gvwire.com 3/16/26 For eight years, Samuel Garza III worked at Starbucks in Clovis without any disciplinary actions. His colleagues respected him, the store named him “Employee of the Month,” and he was even tasked with training new employees, he says in court documents. When his manager discovered he was a registered sex offender, the company fired him in June 2025. The allegations come in a lawsuit filed by Garza, claiming the company knew of his past and that he was protected by state law. Garza filed the civil lawsuit Feb.…
Read MoreACSOL Online Meeting April 18, 2026
You are invited to join ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci and President attorney Elie Miller to our next meeting. The meeting will be held on Saturday, April 18 online on Zoom beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, 1:00 PM Eastern, and will last at least two hours. You can use the Zoom app or you can call in using a Zoom phone number. There is no registration needed for this meeting. No government officials are allowed to attend the meetings. This meeting will be recorded and posted within a couple…
Read MoreThe stakes of the elderly parole debate
Source: themarshallproject.org On Wednesday, the California Board of Parole Hearings voted to reevaluate its earlier decision to grant “elderly parole” to Gregory Vogelsang. The 57-year-old has served 27 years of what is essentially a life sentence for sexually assaulting young children. The move comes amid a broader political backlash over a state law that allows some incarcerated people to become eligible for parole based on age and time served. The controversy first ignited last month around David Allen Funston, a 64-year-old convicted of sexual abuse of children. He was scheduled for release on elderly parole…
Read MoreCA: Fresno looks into banning sex offenders from city council meetings
Source: yourcentralvalley.com 3/17/26 FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The City of Fresno is looking into banning sex offenders from attending city council meetings and installing facial recognition technology to enforce it. This comes after a registered sex offender attempted to run for the District 7 seat. Rene Campos filed earlier this month but didn’t get enough required signatures to appear on the ballot. But voters can still write in his name. “I mean, I never thought the voters would actually support someone like that,” said Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi. At the next city council meeting…
Read MoreA generation of boys grew up on porn. Now, some young men want out.
Source: usatoday.com 3/18/26 He discovered porn at 11 and got addicted. He found help in a surprising place. Ryan didn’t open his phone with the intention of finding porn. But when the 11-year-old came across it on his social media feed, he was intrigued. As he watched, he experienced a rush of curiosity and excitement. Soon, his brain was hooked on that dopamine rush. It became a daily routine. He told himself he could stop if he wanted to, but the habit grew from something he did in the…
Read MoreOH: Commentary: This Middleburg Heights law targets ‘violent’ offenders. Here’s why it will fail
Source: cleveland.com 3/16/26 CLEVELAND, Ohio — Let me start with an uncomfortable disclaimer: This column is going to poke holes in a policy that its supporters say was designed to protect children. I understand why that makes people uneasy. When lawmakers say they’re acting to keep kids safe, most of us want to believe the solution must be a good one. But public safety policy shouldn’t be judged by its intentions. It should be judged by whether it actually works. Let’s consider a recent ordinance passed by Middleburg Heights City…
Read MoreCA: Fresno Surprising poll results: Should someone who is a registered sex offender be allowed to run for public office?
Source: kmph.com 2/27/26 Local leaders and the community have been in an uproar after a candidate was revealed to have a record as a registered sex offender. Several Fresno city leaders spoke out Thursday at City Hall over the candidacy of Rene Campos, a registered sex offender running for Fresno City Council District 7. … Click here to read the surprising results Click here to read Florida Action Committee’s comments
Read MoreFree webinar for attorneys April 21: Sex Offender Laws: Legal Challenges and Remedies CLE
Speaker Janice Bellucci, Executive Director of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL), will be introduced by SW Prof. Emerita Catherine Carpenter ’76. This event on April 21 will run from 6:00-7:00 p.m. PST and offers 1.0 hour of MCLE credit. Southwestern Law School is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. The State of California and local governments have passed a wide array of sex offender laws that significantly impact more than 100,000 people who are required to register as a sex offender. Those restrictions include, but…
Read MoreBeyond “Monsters”: The Collective Failure to End the Sexual Violence Epidemic
Source: ampersandsrj.substack.com 3/12/26 I sat in a prison for men convicted of sexual offenses. The cinderblock walls closed in around me, and the fluorescent lights hummed just loud enough to make silence uncomfortable. I had come as a researcher. I had my armor, my research guide, and my pen. A man in a blue jumpsuit mopped the floor. Others milled around, wondering what I was doing. As I read their files, I realized that they reduced men to categories based on the statute they violated or their level of risk.…
Read MoreCA: Former attorney found guilty of 24 counts involving sexual abuse of minors
Source: abajournal.com 3/11/26 A former California attorney was recently convicted of sexually abusing three minor girls over several years and possessing sexually explicit images of two of his victims. Former Walnut Creek, California, real estate attorney Jonathan Dean Bishop, 51, was found guilty March 2 of 24 felony counts for performing lewd acts on girls younger than age 14, identified in court documents as “Jane Doe #1,” “Jane Doe #2” and “Jane Doe #3.” According to a March 3 press release from the… Read the full article
Read MoreFL: Child predators, AI abuse material penalties getting harsher in Florida
Source: tallahassee.com 3/10/26 Florida lawmakers passed a bill to increase penalties for child sexual abuse crimes. The bill also targets AI-generated child sexual abuse material, making its creation and transmission a second-degree felony. It replaces the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material” in state law. Florida lawmakers want to crack down on child sexual predators and AI child sex images or video. A sweeping bill approved Monday, March 8, by the Senate and approved by the House last week would dramatically increase penalties for child sex crimes and…
Read MoreLobby Day Sign Ups Closed
The good news is that more people have signed up for Lobby Day than expected. The bad news is that we cannot accommodate any additional people. Therefore, it is no longer possible to sign up for Lobby Day. If you are not yet signed up for Lobby Day 2026, we hope that you will join us for Lobby Day 2027. .
Read MoreClose to 20% of Children Suffer Sexual Misconduct by Gov’t School Staff
Source: libertysentinel.substack.com 3/10/26 An estimated 17 percent of students in government schools—about 8 million children—are sexually abused in some way by teachers or staff, revealing a far larger epidemic than previously recognized. The epidemic of sexual misconduct targeting children in government schools is back in the headlines, and it is even worse than previously known. According to the latest estimates, a shocking 17 percent of students in government schools will be victims of some sort of sexual abuse or misconduct at the hands of teachers and faculty. That represents…
Read MoreWhen All Files Count the Same: The Problem of Undifferentiated Images in Child Pornography Sentencing
Source: harvardlawreview.org Our society generally agrees that possessing, producing, and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM)1 is morally reprehensible.2 This societal judgment is represented in sentencing outcomes for those convicted of federal child pornography offenses. Of the individuals who were sentenced in 2023 for child pornography–related offenses, ninety-nine percent were sentenced to prison, with an average sentence of 114 months.3 But, despite the severity of these crimes, sentencing fails to consider certain forensic evidence that could help distinguish more and less culpable offenders. Judges have discretion over sentencing outcomes but…
Read MoreCA: Registrant Withdraws from Fresno City Council Election
Source: ACSOL Rene Campos, a registrant, has withdrawn from the Fresno City Council election. The reason for his withdrawal is an inability to obtain 20 signatures from voters. “The fact that Mr. Campos was unable to obtain the necessary signatures to run for Fresno City Council is due in large part to a coordinated campaign to discredit him,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “At least one City Council member as well as other prominent members of that community bullied Mr. Campos as well as voters who might have signed…
Read MoreSupreme Court Vigil 2026 Held in Washington, D.C.
Registrants and family members conducted a vigil today in Washington, D.C., near the U.S. Supreme Court. The participants held printed signs with messages such as “Smith v. Doe Must Go” and “Registration is Punishment.” The sole speaker at the event was civil rights attorney Janice Bellucci. In her speech, she stated that the Court made a “terrible mistake” in 2003 when they issued the Smith v. Doe decision which erroneously stated that registration is not punishment. Bellucci also demanded that the Court overturn its decision immediately. Following Bellucci’s speech, the…
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