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
Sex Offender Registries: Common Sense or Nonsense?
In October 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint and never seen again. When the boy’s mother, Patty Wetterling, learned that her home state of Minnesota did not have a database of possible suspects—notably convicted sex offenders—she set out to make a change. Wetterling’s efforts led to the passage of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, which...
New Civil Liberties Alliance to Supreme Court: “Don’t let the Attorney General write criminal laws”
[news-journal.com - 6/1/18] The Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress, and thus bars Congress from splitting its authority with an unelected executive official. Nonetheless, when Congress in 2006 wrote the rules for registration of sex offenders in the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), it gave a blank sheet, with no guidelines, to the Attorney General to create registration rules for past...
OK: Two dads pose as teenage girls online to lure ‘pedophiles.’ They caught one, Oklahoma cops say
[star-telegram.com - 5/31/18] Russell Goodwin and Jeremy Thomas think of themselves as the Pedophile Patrol. One local news station called them video vigilantes. The two Oklahoma City dads have gained a modest Facebook following for their page, where they post videos of themselves confronting men they say are pedophiles. They call themselves "Oklahoma Pedophile Prevention. They make their claims through similar tactics to those...
OK: The “Justice for Danyelle Act of 2018”: The Shady Tactics behind another Oklahoma Knee Jerk Law
[sosen.org - 5/31/18] Oklahoma’s “Justice for Danyelle Act of 2018,” an act that prohibits registrants from living within 2,000 feet of their victim’s home and loitering within 1,000 feet of the same, is a prime example of a knee jerk law. This law also demonstrated one of the deceptive tactics that Oklahoma lawmakers use in order to advance their own personal agenda using the...
America’s Shadow Criminal Justice System
[newrepublic.com - 5/30/18] How the “supervised release” program pulls tens of thousands of former inmates back into prison without a fair trial By Jacob Schuman In the federal criminal justice system, prison is just the beginning of punishment. After prison comes “supervised release,” a set of obligations and restrictions governing an ex-con’s day-to-day schedule, employment, residence, and relationships. In the best-case scenario, two-thirds of...
India: Kerala readies bill on sex offenders’ database
[timesofindia.indiatimes.com - 6/1/18] THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state home department is ready with a draft bill that would allow the preparation of a sex offenders' database that can be accessed by the public and the various enforcement agencies. The draft bill titled 'The Kerala Sex Offender Registration Bill, 2018', accessed by TOI, aims to prepare an electronic database which will collate and retain all the necessary...
Challenging the Punitiveness of ‘New-Generation’ SORN Laws (Paper)
Sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws have been in effect nationwide since the 1990s, and publicly available registries today contain information on hundreds of thousands of individuals. To date, most courts, including the Supreme Court in 2003, have concluded that the laws are regulatory, not punitive, in nature, allowing them to be applied retroactively consistent with the Ex Post Facto Clause. Recently, however,...
CA: Superior Court Judges Limits Residency Restrictions to Parolees
A California Superior Court judge has ruled that residency restrictions may only be applied to registrants while they are on parole. This ruling, issued in Norwalk Superior Court yesterday, is consistent with a ruling made by a federal judge in late 2017. "These court decisions are important because they clarify that cities may not impose residency restrictions against registrants who are not on parole,"...
General Comments June 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
NM: State tells convicted sex offender who she can date
Did you ever think that the State of New Mexico could tell someone who they could or could not date? That's exactly what happened to a convicted sex offender last year, who was caught breaking the rules while on probation. Full Article
NY: Sex Offender With Secret Facebook Wins Appeal
A New York appeals court dismissed the indictment Thursday of a one-legged sex offender who did not register his Facebook account with the state. Full Article Decision
CA: California Program to Help Homeless Vets Excludes Sex Offenders
[floridaactioncommittee.org - 3/31/18] It sounds like a great program. Homeless military veterans who have been sleeping in their cars and risking arrest for violating a new law making it illegal to sleep in your vehicle in a residential area overnight, can now park their vehicles in the VA parking lot and get a good night’s sleep and access to bathrooms. According to California Radio...
FL: Duval County rolls out drivers license restoration program
[floridapolitics.com - 5/30/18] Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams and State Attorney Melissa Nelson on Wednesday rolled out the ‘KEYS 2 Drive’ (Knowledge Empowers Your Success) diversion program. The program will help those facing primary charges of driving without valid licenses, or suspended or revoked licenses, to get valid drivers’ licenses. ... Sex offenders are ineligible for the program, ... Read the whole article
AR: Here’s a helping hand – Right into a prison cell—or worse
[arkansasonline.com - 5/30/18] There are so many lessons to be drawn from Bobbie Gross' tragic experience in trying to help her 17-year-old son that the challenge isn't to describe just one but how to sum up the whole plethora of ills the young man fell into when left to the not-so-tender mercies of the State of Arkansas: It turns out that his mother, seeking...
NJ Supreme Court Bars Retroactive Application of Megan’s Law Amendments
[law.com - 5/30/18] The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held 2014 amendments to Megan's Law enhancing certain penalties for sex offenders who violate parole requirements unenforceable against four defendants based on the ex post facto clauses of both the state and federal constitutions. Read more Related: NJ Supreme Court finds Ex Post Facto violations as applied to 4 sex offenders [floridaactioncommittee.org - 5/31/18]...
FL: A decree bars police from harassing homeless people. Miami has moved to terminate it
[miamiherald.com - 5/30/18] Miami has asked a federal judge to terminate a 20-year-old legal agreement that protects the city's homeless from undue police harassment — a change that would allow the police to arrest the homeless for loitering. The city on Wednesday filed a motion in U.S. District Court to terminate the Pottinger agreement, a 1998 consent decree that prevents police from arresting homeless...
Sex Offender Ponzi Scheme
[dsdaughtry.wordpress.com - 5/28/18] Ponzi schemes are investment strategies where individuals help facilitate other like-minded individuals by purchasing or acquiring an idea or product with the hopes of an economic safety and security outcomes. These elaborate schemes take time to manifest and mature. Those that refuse or suspicious are usually labeled as missing an opportunity of a lifetime or misanthropic. Once the moment of collapse...
The Dating Debacle for Registrants
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org - 5/30/18] Who do you tell, what do you say and when do you say it? That’s just one of the many dilemmas facing single registrants trying to reintegrate back into the dating world. Getting out there an socializing is risky business and it’s filled with many possible pitfalls. But this is what you are supposed to do isn’t it? Isn’t this what...
MO: Senate Bill 655 changes the way MO handles sex offender registry [three tier]
[fourstateshomepage.com = 5/29/18] State lawmakers sign off on a potential law changing the way the Show Me State handles its sex offender registry. Senate Bill 655 would create a three tier system, similar to the one used at the federal level. Those guilty of the least serious convictions could ask courts to take them off the list after ten years. That option is also...
CA: The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation wants to rid some facilities of sensitive needs yards
[sacbee.com - 5/27/18] The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is changing how inmates are housed, saying current separations between general population inmates and those held in sensitive needs yards have been ineffective in eliminating gangs and violence within prison walls. The agency will instead move toward creating some "non-designated program" facilities, where both groups will be tasked with co-existing. The current system has...