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.
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OR: Living with a label
For most youth, childhood is a seemingly innocent and simple time, typically full of school work, play time and life lessons. But when a child becomes a registered sex offender when they are as young as 10, those years are full of probation, detention and life lessons of another kind: living with a label. Full Article
RIT study: More than half of child pornography probationers had sexual contact with kids
More than half of the men on federal probation in western New York for child pornography possession had instances of "sexual contact with children that were previously unknown to legal authorities," according to a local study. Though completed early in 2018, the study conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, or RIT, is now beginning to make ripples in federal court. One...
Philippines: BI bars 145 convicted sex offenders to PH
The Bureau of Immigration barred 145 foreigners convicted of sex crimes in their home countries from January to November of the 2018. BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said the number of registered sex offenders denied entry is slightly lower than the 165 sex convicts intercepted in the same period of 2017. Full Article
FL: Miami-Herald: FAC Opinion Published
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 1/4/19. Not available on miamiherald.com] An opinion piece in response to a recent article in the Miami Herald was published today. The text of the response and an image of the article as it appeared are below. Your December 31, 2018 article, “Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing.” correctly points out that the Office of Program Policy Analysis...
CA: Wiener details 2019 LGBT bills
[ebar.com - 1/2/19] While his bills aimed at addressing California's housing crisis are expected to be some of the most closely watched legislative fights this year, gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) will also be pushing to pass legislation focused on LGBT issues. ... Another bill Wiener plans to introduce this year would prevent gay male adolescents from having to be listed on...
IL: Man sues state’s attorney, officials for $10M over sex offender registration
A convicted sex offender who claims he was innocent is suing St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly and state officials for $5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, alleging his reputation within his community continues to be irreparably injured by his registration status. Full Article
General Comments January 2019
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2019. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
New US Sentencing Commission Report: Mandatory Minimums for Federal Sex Offenses
[ussc.gov - 1/1/19] Summary (Published January 2019) This publication examines the application of mandatory minimum penalties specific to federal sex offenses; it is the sixth and final release in the Commission's series of publications on mandatory minimum penalties. Using fiscal year 2016 data, this publication includes analyses of the two types of federal sex offenses carrying mandatory minimum penalties, sexual abuse offenses and child...
FL: Report: Number of sex offenders living in Florida is growing
[miamiherald.com - 12/31/18] TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The number of sex offenders and predators living in Florida has been rising steadily for more than a decade, according to a new report put together by legislative auditors. The report issued late last week stated that nearly 29,000 registered sex offenders and predators now reside in the state. That's an increase of 53 percent since 2005, when state...
Kat’s Blog: Sometimes A Song Is Just A Song
Baby It’s Cold Outside. It was just a wintery song from the late forties, nothing more. A song that’s been sung during the Christmas holidays for decades. Generations grew up singing along with the radio, no one ever had issues with it. That is until now. Now it’s the latest moral holiday debate. The victim of a # movement. Someone or some group decides...
Israeli Sex Offenders Are No Longer Allowed to Change Name
[haaretz.com - 1/1/19] The Knesset on Monday passed into law a bill that prohibits people convicted of sex crimes from changing their name. “The law came about as a response to complaints by women who were shocked to learn they had been in a relationship with convicted sex offenders in the past,” said Meretz MK Michal Rozin, who drafted the law. “This had been...
Not all sex offenders are the same. It’s time we reform how we treat them – Opinion
Florida Bar Association President Michelle Suskauer recently penned a column published in FLORIDA TODAY about needs for reforming the criminal justice system. In her piece, she focused on a number of important issues about mental health, curbing recidivism, re-entry, sentencing and much more. Missing among these targets for reform, however, is the ever-present quagmire dealing with sex offenders, a topic most politicians and justice...
The Carceral Problem Is Getting Worse
The criminal justice reform bill, hopefully dubbed the First Step Act, represents a real accomplishment — a positive development in otherwise conservative times. It is all the more remarkable that a reactionary president, who ran a tough-on-crime campaign, is now poised to sign the bill. ... Mass incarceration is no doubt the most glaring feature of the punitive turn. But the punitive state is...
The Dobbs Wire: Rogue judge driven off the bench
[The Dobbs Wire email - 12/25/18] A Pittsburgh criminal court judge has finally submitted her resignation. Judge Donna Jo McDaniel’s expected exit comes after repeated rebukes by a Pennsylvania appeals court, extensive news coverage, the ire of at least one editorial board, and talk of an investigation by the state's judicial conduct commission. First elected to the bench in 1985, McDaniel was driven from...
Kat’s Blog: Media Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone
From the small town (pop. 2,000+) of Sardis, Mississippi came a Christmas Story with a happy ending, sort of. Michael Clay Saripkin, a registrant, served as the Grand Marshal of the Sardis Christmas parade Dec. 11 2018. According to the news article most of the residents of Sardis have no problem with a man with a past being named Grand Marshal by the town’s...
Reminder of NARSOL’s helpline open on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
For everyone who may be feeling more lonely and depressed as Christmas draws nearer, NARSOL wishes to remind you of our fully staffed helpline opening at 7 a.m. eastern time on Christmas Eve. The volunteers who will be manning the lines all have intimate knowledge of what being on the registry is like and how difficult holidays can be, and they are happy to...
Why Should Feminists Be Against the Sex Offender Registry?
In October, the Supreme Court heard a case that was painfully ironic, considering the Kavanaugh hearings the nation had just been subjected to: a challenge to the United States’ extremely restrictive sex offender registry laws. While opinions on the case Gundy v. United States, which challenges the Attorney General’s ability to retroactively impose registry requirements, have yet to come out, debate around sex offender...
PayPal Account for ACSOL Restored
The PayPal account for the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) was put on hold for about a week, but has been restored. According to PayPal representatives, the IRS is responsible for the hold which affected ACSOL as well as thousands of others. "ACSOL's PayPal account was unable to accept donations, either on a one-time or a monthly basis, from December 15 through...
Interpol Response re. Green Notices
Submitted by Steve: Some off you are aware that I sent in a inquiry to Interpol that questioned their standards for issuing green notices...well I got a response back from Interpol, Lyon Paris (Yes the mothership AJ) In my letter I stated that I have not yet had a green notice issued against me (haven't travel abroad yet) but asked the question are they appealable....
MS: Mississippi Town Chose Sex Offender as Its Christmas Parade Grand Marshal
[newsweek.com - 12/17/18] Residents of small town in Mississippi said they do not care that its Christmas parade grand marshal has been listed on the sex offender registry in two different states. Michael Clay Saripkin, a convicted sex offender, served as grand marshal of the Sardis Christmas parade on December 11. Some residents of the Mississippi town told local media that they saw no...