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Constitution Civil Due Process Civil Rights Speech and Religion Judicial Interpretation Torts and Liability State High Courts Split on Laws Letting Survivors of Sexual Abuse Sue After Expiration of Statutes of Limitations

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Source: statecourtreport.org 11/24/25 State supreme courts have emphasized different constitutional provisions to decide whether bills reviving time-barred civil causes of action for child sexual abuse claims are constitutional. In recent years, several state legislatures have passed statutes making it easier for survivors of sexual abuse to bring civil suits against their abusers and related non-perpetrator defendants. On one hand, these laws have given many survivors the chance to seek justice after decades with no recompense for their suffering. On the other hand, they have exposed institutions like public school districts…

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Tim Ballard’s Reputation is in Shambles. The Americans He Helped Arrest Want Answers.

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Source: theappeal.org 12/9/25 Tim Ballard, the disgraced “anti-sex-trafficking” expert, was the subject of a hit 2023 biographical film and serial sexual misconduct allegations in the same year. After Ballard’s fall, the people he helped arrest in Washington want to know why no one seems willing to take a second look at their cases.   Back in 2014, a Washington State Patrol sergeant named Carlos Rodriguez was hunting for money. His unit, the Missing and Exploited Children Task Force, faced a budget shortfall, and legislators were of little help—they were in…

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Action Alert: Please Join Effort to Remove Anti-Registrant Merchandise from Etsy.com

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Please join ACSOL and others in an effort to persuade Etsy to remove anti-registrant merchandise from its website.  The merchandise at issue includes messages on clothing and bumper stickers such as “Shoot Your Local Pedophile” and “Dead Pedophiles Don’t Reoffend.” “These and other statements on merchandise incite violence and therefore are not protected by the First Amendment,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.   Messages demanding that Etsy remove its anti-registrant merchandise from its website should be sent by email to [email protected] It is important to note that the anti-registrant merchandise…

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New reports present findings on sexual victimization reported by inmates

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Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)  BJS has released Sexual Victimization in Local Jails Reported by Inmates, 2023–24 and Sexual Victimization in Prisons Reported by Inmates, 2023–24. These reports present findings from the fourth National Inmate Survey (NIS-4) in state and federal prisons and local jails. This NIS is part of BJS’s National Prison Rape Statistics Program, which collects allegations of sexual victimization directly from victims and information on reported sexual victimization from administrative records. The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108–79) requires BJS to carry out…

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How Federal Supervision Nearly Derailed Noel’s Second Chance

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Source: reformalliance.com 12/1/25 When Noel Barrientos came home from federal prison in 2018, he believed the hardest part of his sentence was behind him. He had served three and a half years for a white-collar offense, and was eager to rebuild his life, reconnect with his two young daughters, and start a career.  But Noel was placed on federal supervision, which meant his newfound freedom was fragile. He left prison only to be followed by a long list of unhelpful rules and by a system that fails to promote stability. …

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Justice Department can unseal Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case records, judge says

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Source: apnews.com 12/9/25 NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department can publicly release investigative materials from a sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein, a federal judge said on Tuesday. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled after the Justice Department in November asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from Maxwell and Epstein’s cases, along with investigative materials that could amount to hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents. The ruling, in the wake of the passage last month of the Epstein Files Transparency…

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FL: Florida’s new reporting system is shining a light on human trafficking in the Sunshine State

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Source: theconversation.com 12/8/25 Most Americans imagine human trafficking as a violent kidnapping or a “stranger danger” crime – someone abducted from a parking lot or trapped in a shipping container brought in from another country. In fact, trafficking rarely takes this form. In most cases, traffickers spend months or even years building trust and creating emotional and economic bonds with their victims. They use a variety of coercion and control techniques such as emotional abuse, forced criminality, financial abuse, and physical and sexual abuse to entrap their victims. Meanwhile, the perpetrators are making…

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CA: Fresno County targets sex offender concentration with new ordinance proposal

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Source: kmph.com 12/8/25 FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — Fresno County Supervisors Garry Bredefeld and Brian Pacheco, alongside Sheriff John Zanoni, have announced a proposed ordinance aimed at limiting the number of registered sex offenders in single-family homes in unincorporated areas. They are holding a news conference on Monday morning at 10 a.m. to announce the proposal at the Hall of Records in downtown Fresno. The move comes after residents voiced concerns about safety and quality of life. “This ordinance is long overdue,” Bredefeld said. “No neighborhood should be made to feel afraid…

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UT: Violent Drug-Using Wellington Vigilante Attempts to Murder Registrant

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Source: fox13now.com 12/5/25 WELLINGTON, Utah — A Wellington father was arrested and faces a charge of attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a registered sex offender 17 times after he allegedly made comments his minor daughter. Thad James Gurule was arrested on Wednesday. Police were called Monday to a Wellington home in Wellington after a call regarding a man covered in blood standing on the porch. Emergency personnel eventually found the victim a short distance away from the location with multiple stab wounds and lacerations. … Officers identified the alleged…

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Chicago Promoted Two Police Officers After Investigators Found They Engaged in Sexual Misconduct

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Source: propublica.org 12/4/25 The Chicago Police Department’s promotions system allows officers’ disciplinary records to be ignored. Despite years of reform efforts, nothing has changed.   One of Chicago’s newest police sergeants had been deemed “unfit to serve” after an investigation uncovered evidence that he created a fake Facebook account and spread a nude photo of a woman he was sexually involved with, then lied to investigators about it.  Another new sergeant had been found to have engaged in conduct that “seriously undermines public faith, credibility, and trust in the Department”…

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Arrest Mark Zuckerberg for Child Endangerment

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Source: newrepublic.com 12/3/25 Shocking new revelations about Instagram in a lawsuit against social media companies should pave the way for an ambitious prosecutor to file criminal charges.   Should Mark Zuckerberg be handcuffed—literally—for the threat his products pose to millions of children? That’s the inescapable question raised by a legal brief filed last month in a civil case against major social media companies. The litigation, which alleges that social media platforms have been purposefully cultivating addiction among adolescents, has been working its way through the courts since 2022. But the details laid…

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CA: Family of 8-year-old girl sues LA school alleging sexual assault by older girl students

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Source: msn.com 12/3/25 The family of an 8-year-old girl is suing a school in Chatsworth, alleging their daughter was sexually assaulted by older students as part of a so-called “Kissing Club” and the school failed to do enough to stop it, or report it, once they found out. According to the family, their daughter, who was 7 years old at the time of the incident, was sexually assaulted in the bathrooms of Sierra Canyon School, a private school serving students from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th Grade, during school hours. The lawsuit…

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CA: Redding council calls for stricter rules on parolee housing at motels

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Source: redding.com 12/3/25 Two primary organizations are housing parolees, including sex offenders and arsonists, in Redding motels. A report found no concentration of parolees from outside the area being housed in the city. Some motels are being used for transitional housing without the proper legal classification or permits. Redding City Council has directed officials to enforce zoning laws and draft new rules for non-profits. At the Dec. 2 Redding City Council meeting, the City Manager’s Office gave a report on the housing of parolees — including registered arsonists and sex…

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DOJ Says Violent Stalker Used ChatGPT to Encourage Him to Find the ‘Wife Type’

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Source: 404media.co 12/3/25 [ACSOL is posting this as a warning] A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his “therapist” and “best friend” in his pursuit of the “wife type,” while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work and relocate from their homes. A Pittsburgh man who allegedly made 11 women’s lives hell across more than five states used ChatGPT as his “therapist” and “best friend” that encouraged him to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms…

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Australia: Brave ACT shows restorative justice for sex offenders can work

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Source: johnmenadue.com 12/3/25 A major Australian Institute of Criminology evaluation shows restorative justice in the ACT has improved victim wellbeing and significantly reduced reoffending in domestic and sexual violence cases. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was a global leader in extending restorative justice into the fraught area of domestic and sexual violence – and it has resoundingly worked. A comprehensive Australian Institute of Criminology research report has found victims felt better supported, perpetrators learned that victims are not to blame and – most importantly – the frequency of re-offending has…

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Drawing the Line Watchlist Launch Webinar (Dec 10)

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Source: Center for Online Safety and Liberty The Drawing the Line Watchlist exposes a disturbing global trend: as prosecutions for victimless “virtual” offences rise, real child abuse cases are being left behind. In the United Kingdom, newly released data show that prosecutions for real child sexual abuse images have fallen by more than half since 2017, even as cases involving purely fictional or AI-generated material have surged to nearly 40% of all image offences. Join panelists Emma Shapiro (Independent Expert on online art censorship; editor-at-large Don’t Delete Art), Ashley Remminga…

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Lawmakers To Consider 19 Bills for Childproofing the Internet

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Source: reason.com 12/1/25 KOSA is back, along with more than a dozen other bills that will erode free speech and privacy in the name of protecting kids.   Can you judge the heat of a moral panic by the number of bills purporting to solve it? At the height of human trafficking hysteria in the 2010s, every week seemed to bring some new measure meant to help the government tackle the problem (or at least get good press for the bill’s sponsor). Now lawmakers have moved on from sex trafficking to social…

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CA: For Incarcerated Students in California, Education Is a Collective Endeavor

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Source: truthout.org 12/1/25 Often denied access to the books and materials they need, incarcerated students rely on mutual aid to succeed. Kenneth Butler, an inside-outside prison education training coach who grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, spent 15 years incarcerated prior to his release from prison in June 2021. He’s since implemented reentry programs and conducted recidivism research in Uganda while on a Fulbright Fellowship, and he has served as a mentor to formerly incarcerated youth and young adults in Southern California. Before all that, Butler was…

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