The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is dedicated to protecting the Constitution by restoring the civil rights of registrants and their families. In order to achieve that objective, ACSOL will educate and litigate as well as support or oppose legislation. The ACSOL website and recordings are provided as a service to registrants, registrants’ families, and others for general information only. The information on the website and in the recordings are not designed to provide legal or other advice or to create an attorney-client relationship. You should not take, or refrain from taking, action based on their content. Prior results and case studies do not guarantee a similar outcome in future representations. ACSOL accepts no responsibility for any loss or damages that may result from accessing or reliance on content on the ACSOL website and recordings and disclaim, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any and all liability with respect to acts or omissions made by registrants, registrants’ families and others on the basis of content on the ACSOL website.
Important News / Announcements
General News Feed
AZ: Sex registry bill defeated as senators protest failure to expand rights for sex abuse victims
[azmirror.com - 5/7/19] Lawmakers argued passionately and the Senate president turned off a fellow Republican’s microphone as senators killed a bill expanding the number of people who are eligible to be removed from Arizona’s sex offender registry to protest the blocking of an unrelated bill that would give victims of child sex abuse more time to sue in civil court. House Bill 2613, sponsored...
FL: Approves Database to Publish Details of People Who Pay for Sex
The Florida legislature passed legislation within the past week, Senate Bill 540 and House Bill 851, to establish a public database that tracks people convicted of, or who have pleaded guilty to, soliciting paid sex. While the legislation’s bipartisan authors consider it to be a step toward ending human trafficking, critics call it a means to publicly shame clients and others associated with people...
ID: Sex offenders ask court to revive Idaho registry lawsuit
[washingtontimes.com - 5/6/19] A group of 134 sex offenders have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court to revive their lawsuit against the state of Idaho because they say they were denied their constitutional rights when they were forced to register as sex offenders. The group, referred to only as John Does 1 through 134 in the lawsuit, notified U.S. District Judge David Nye on...
Kat’s blog: The Definition of Words Matters
Watch the current goings on in Washington. Politicians have become fluent at arguing over the definition of words. During the Clinton administration it was the word “is” that Pres. Clinton needed defined. Now, with Attorney General Barr the word “summary” is an issue. I don’t know about the folks in Washington but where I come from all you have to do is look up...
NY: Animal-abuser registry plan advances in Oneida County
[romesentinel.com - 5/3/19] A plan to start a registry of convicted animal abusers in Oneida County advanced through a legislative committee this week but not without questions. The Board of Legislators’ Health and Human Services Committee passed the proposal on to the full board Wednesday. The measure would establish an website similar to that of sex offenders, with offender’s names, residence, birth dates, photo...
NC: Child exploitation operations net 82 arrests in eight states
[cnn.com- 5/3/19] Authorities in eight states arrested 82 people in operations this week that also rescued or identified 17 children thought to be victims of exploitation, officials announced Friday. "This three-day operation provides a snapshot of the work that the (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force is doing round the clock, seven days per week. Predators are real, and they walk among us,"...
NY: Child porn convict living across from school, locked up in Ohio
[whec.com - 5/1/19] News10NBC is tracking the case of ________. We are trying to learn why a man who is a registered sex offender after a child porn conviction, was allowed to live across the street from an elementary school. ________ was in federal court in downtown Rochester Wednesday morning. It was a brief hearing to discuss his most recent arrest. We learned ________...
KS: Bill outlaws lowering sentences for some sex offenders in Kansas
[kshb.com - 5/1/19] Kansas lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that would prevent judges from reducing sentences for adult sex offenders because a child victim was the "aggressor." Events that unfolded in a Leavenworth County courtroom in December inspired the change after 67-year-old Raymond Soden , who was charged with soliciting teen girls online for sex, received a reduced sentence. Despite a standard sentence for...
The Problem with Sex Offender Punishment
Few crimes evoke such passionate and emotional public responses as do those committed by the sexual offender; yet, few crimes are as sensationalized and misunderstood as the sexual offence. Although many offences are exaggerated in terms of amount, those committed by the sex offender are often perpetually entrenched in hyperbole. And this is not some neo-liberal, new wave approach to understanding sex offenders. In...
FL: Housing elderly sex offenders
Since 82-year-old ____ ____ hit his head in a fall eight months ago, he can't remember to take his medicine. His ex-wife, ____, calls him 11 times a day to remind him about his appointments. At that stage of dementia, many families would consider admitting him to a nursing home, but ____ said she has a list of assisted living homes that have rejected ____....
Living with 290: Early Discharge from Parole Granted
I wanted to share an experience that might provide everyone a better idea of the current climate in the California CDCR Parole arena. I was just approved for an early discharge from parole and have an appointment to go in tomorrow to have my ankle monitor removed and be officially discharged. The plea deal I took, for a 288(a) L&L w/child under 14 included...
WI, IL: Wisconsin, Illinois sued over transgender name-change laws
[washingtonpost.com - 5/1/19] Attorneys sued Wisconsin and Illinois Wednesday over laws that forbid transgender individuals from changing their names if they have certain criminal convictions. Both federal lawsuits argue that the states are violating free speech rights and are preventing people from expressing how they identify themselves. “The impact on their lives is severe. This is an issue of equality and equal participation in...
VA: A look at why Gov. Northam vetoed a bill related to sex offenders in emergency shelters
[wjla.com - 4/30/19] Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has vetoed legislation that would allow officials to temporarily block convicted sex offenders from using emergency shelters. Northam said Tuesday it is "unconscionable" that people could be turned away from shelters during hurricanes, flash floods or other emergencies. The legislation would have allowed shelter officials to deny entrance for convicted sex offenders for however long was "necessary...
Tasmanian Speaker Sue Hickey votes against her own government again
[theadvocate.com.au - 5/1/19] Speaker Sue Hickey has scuttled the government's attempts to impose mandatory sentences on serious child-sex offenders. In making her casting vote on Wednesday night, Ms Hickey said she was surprised a bill, which had already been rejected by Parliament once before, had been reintroduced without amendments. She said she had taken advice from legal professionals opposed to mandatory sentencing provisions in...
ME: Maine Senate backs bill to extend statute of limitations on sex crimes
[timesrecord.com - 5/1/19] The Maine Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would extend the state’s statute of limitations on sexual assaults from eight years to 20 years. The measure, if approved by the House and signed by Gov. Janet Mills, would put Maine more in line with other states’ sex crimes statutes. The Senate passed the bill without debate. “Only three other states...
NY: Petitioners seek to remove judge who gave bus driver probation for rape of 14-year-old
[wmbfnews.com - 5/1/19] A New York judge is facing outrage for ruling a former school bus driver did not have to go to jail after pleading guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl. More than 45,000 people signed an online petition by Wednesday morning, calling for Judge James P. McClusky to be removed. He sentenced _______ to 10 years of probation, and _______ will have...
Janice’s Journal: All Felons Deserve the Right to Vote
Although the next major election is more than a year away, it’s not too early to focus on who is eligible to vote. This issue is important because the total number of voters, in general, and the groups of people eligible to vote, could determine the result of that election. I am saying this while watching a struggle in Florida. A struggle about who...
Action Alert: CA Senate Bill 145 Hearing ON HOLD
5/5/19 UPDATE: THIS BILL IS ON HOLD. MORE UPDATES AS WE FIND OUT MORE . Please take action quickly even if you are not directly affected by this. We want to show our support for Senator Scott Weiner, author of the Tiered Registry Law and SB 145. Senate Bill 145, which would create equality for the purpose of registration between heterosexual and homosexual couples,...
Abolish the sex offender registry
[thenorthernlight.org - 4/29/19] It’s not easy to come to the defense of nonviolent sex offenders. Any lawmaker that considers reforming the excessively-punitive registry will start out on the losing side of the public’s perception. For starters, there is an erroneous assumption that the registry entirely comprises of rapists and pedophiles. On top of that, sex offender registration has become somewhat of a throwaway issue....
IN: 7th Circuit rules DOC sex offender program violates Constitution
[theindianalawyer.com - 4/26/19] Finding the disclosures provide information that any law enforcement agent “would love to have,” the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Indiana’s requirement that sex offender inmates give detailed accounts of their past actions violates the Constitution’s protections against self-incrimination. Donald Lacy, a sex offender inmate in the Indiana Department of Correction, filed a class action on behalf of all...