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
Australia: A public register of child sex offenders will do more harm than good
[smh.com.au - 4/4/19] If politicians are looking for a sure fire vote winner then anything that punishes people convicted of sex offences does the trick. So there is likely to be little resistance to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s budget announcement of $7.8 million to establish a National Public Register of Child Sex Offenders. Dutton is proposing that this register would allow all...
Canada: Sex-offender registry laws discriminate against mentally ill, court rules
[theprovince.com - 4/4/19] Parts of federal and Ontario laws requiring sex-offender registration where an accused is granted an absolute discharge after being found not criminally responsible discriminate against the mentally ill and are therefore unconstitutional, Ontario’s top court ruled Thursday. While the court ordered information belonging to the man who brought the case to be deleted immediately from sex-offender registries, the justices also...
Prosecutors Dropping Child Porn Charges After Software Tools Are Questioned
[propublica.org - 4/3/19] Using specialized software, investigators traced explicit child pornography to Todd Hartman’s internet address. A dozen police officers raided his Los Angeles-area apartment, seized his computer and arrested him for files including a video of a man ejaculating on a 7-year-old girl. But after his lawyer contended that the software tool inappropriately accessed Hartman’s private files, and asked to examine how...
Action Alert: AB 884 and SB 145 hearing on April 9 [4/8 UPDATE]
4/9/19 UPDATE: the Assembly Public Safety Committee--which will still be hearing AB 884 at 10:00 am on 4/9--announced they are changing the room number to Room 4202. 4/4/19 UPDATE: the Senate Public Safety Committee--which will be hearing SB 145--announced they are meeting at 8:30 am. That means we will meet at Starbucks from 7:30 am to 8:00 and walk over at 8:00. Both the...
How to carpool and get housing for our battle in Sacramento
We need as many people as possible to show up in Sacramento! We want well over 100 registrants, family, and supporters to show up. To help the maximum number of people attend, we need people who can, or wish to, carpool and/or share hotel rooms near the state capitol. Carpools will depart on Monday, April 8, from the cities in which we can find...
General Comments April 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of April 2019. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil. This section is not intended for posting links to news articles without additional comment.
NC Bill: Convicted Animal Abusers Will Be Added to an Online Registry; Much Like Sex Offenders
[wfmynews2.com - 4/2/19] After a person's first Animal Abuse offense, they would be put on the registry for the next two years. If they have another offense they would be put on the registry for five years. If you are convicted of an animal abuse crime this bill reiterates you may be forced to give up any animals you own. If you are a...
Australia: Federal Budget dedicates $7.8 million for child sex offender list
[news.com.au - 4/3/19] Australians will soon have access to a wealth of information about convicted paedophiles across the country after the Federal Budget allocated $7.8 million for a “name and shame” list. The Budget 2019-2020 provides $7.8 million to establish a National Public Register of Child Sex Offenders, an initiative the government hopes will provide a “nationally consistent approach to the public release...
IL: Federal Judge Finds Illinois Rules On Sex Offenders Unconstitutional
[wbez.org - 4/1/19] A federal judge in Chicago has found the Illinois Department of Corrections is violating the constitutional rights of prisoners convicted of certain sex crimes by making the restrictions on where they can live so stringent that inmates are often locked up long beyond their sentences. In a ruling issued Sunday, Judge Virginia Kendall wrote that hundreds of offenders in the...
CA: Judge Allows San Diego Sex Offender Lawsuit To Proceed
[kpbs.org - 4/1/19] San Diego City Council members are under more pressure to repeal an unenforceable law restricting where sex offenders can live in the city, after a federal judge allowed a lawsuit challenging the ordinance to proceed. Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ruled in January against the city's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in 2017 by a group of unnamed sex...
CT: Lawmakers Debate Changes in Sex Offender Registry
[courant.com - 4/1/19] State legislators are debating whether they should make changes in the state’s sex offender registry, which was established in 1998. Former Republican state legislator Bob Farr of West Hartford and other advocates called Monday for approving the recommendations of the state’s sentencing commission on changes to the registry, which is currently "based on the offense and not on the risk...
WI: Fairchild residents up in arms over sex offender housing plan
[leadertelegram.com - 3/26/19] Fairchild residents came out in force Tuesday to share their objections to a plan to potentially house released sexual predators in the community. Nearly 40 Fairchild area residents packed into a small meeting room Tuesday morning at the Eau Claire County Courthouse to express their outrage at the possibility of housing sex offenders on supervised release at a facility on county-owned...
Kat’s Blog: We are More Than a Mugshot
Last week’s Miami Herald article bothered me. You know the one, “Karma caught up with these sex offenders and predators, Florida cops say”. It was called Operation Karma, the totally unnecessary round-up of registrants, in this case, 26 of them, whose only “crime” was neglecting to follow through with some tiresome registration requirement, listing a new home address, registering a motor vehicle, a media...
Maldives: FPA establishes regulation for sex offender database
[raajje.mv - 3/29/19] The state’s Family Protection Agency (FPA) has on Thursday established a regulation for the database of sexual offenders in the Maldives. The Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sex Abuse Offenders, passed in 2009, makes it mandatory to establish a register for sexual offenders. Read more
AZ: Sex offenders get chance to end life-long registration under House proposal
[azcapitoltimes.com - 3/29/19] State lawmakers are weighing whether to give judges more leeway to eliminate the requirement that certain people register for life as sex offenders. A measure approved Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee would allow people convicted of certain sex crimes, when they turn 35, to petition to be absolved of the mandate. Not everyone would be eligible. The legislation pushed by...
OR: Portland city leader wants landlords to forgive bad credit and crimes
[komonews.com - 3/28/19] Hoping to get more people into homes, Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly is proposing that landlords look past a prospective renter's ding in their credit or even their criminal past. ... But when she realized the new rules might let a burglar, or an arsonist, or even a sex offender move in next door, she admitted she had to rethink the...
NCJFCJ Releases Resolution for Sex Offender Requirements for Youth Under Age 18
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) released its latest resolution regarding sex offender requirements for youth under the age of 18. Research shows that placing youth on sex offender registries does not advance public safety and can actually make communities less safe. Research also shows that re-offending rates for youth who offend sexually are extremely low and that juvenile sexual re-offense risk assessments have...
Janice’s Journal: Flowers of Justice are Blooming
Spring has begun and the flowers of justice are blooming. One of these flowers, which is especially beautiful and fragrant, is a decision issued today by the Massachusetts Supreme Court that significantly limits the use of GPS devices for those convicted of a sex offense even if the registrant is on probation. In its decision, the Court determined that GPS monitoring of an individual...
Malaysia: Child sex offender registry to begin operations from April 1
[freemalaysiatoday.com - 3/26/19] PUTRAJAYA: The child sex offenders registry will be made available from April 1 to help the public monitor sexual offenders. Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh said with the child registry in place, the ministry and the Welfare Department hope to protect children from repeat offenders. “Parents, school managements, childcare centres and even religious organisations can now use...
MA: Mandatory GPS monitoring of some sex offenders violates privacy rights
Convicted sex offenders retain a constitutional right to privacy, and those rights are being violated by a state law mandating that everyone convicted of some sex crimes wear a GPS monitoring bracelet as part of their sentence, the state’s highest court ruled Tuesday. Full Article