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
FL: Hearing to take place this Thursday in Miami-Dade case
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/8/18] A special-set hearing has been scheduled for this Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 10:15 on Plaintiff’s Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction. Attorneys for the plaintiffs, homeless registrants, are seeking a stay of the County-imposed deadline to leave the encampment or be arrested. With nowhere else to go, if the Plaintiffs leave the encampment they would be arrested for violating the residency restriction....
CA: Judge in Stanford rape case breaks silence amid sentencing controversy, recall effort
[cbsnews.com 5/8/18] SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. -- A California judge whose sentence for a former Stanford University swimmer in a sex assault case garnered national controversy broke his silence Tuesday ahead of next month's recall vote. The effort to recall Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky is being closely watched for its national political implications. If it's successful, Persky would be the first California...
CA: Coalinga Patients Score Two Victories
Patients at Coalinga State Hospital scored two victories today -- one in court and the other in the state legislature. As a result of the victories, the patients' past votes as well as future votes in City of Coalinga elections are valid. Specifically, a Fresno Superior Court judge ruled today against the City of Coalinga which had attempted to invalidate the patients' votes in...
MO: Missouri’s dubious export: Sex offenders
Missouri treats all sex offenders living outside of prison as harshly as some states punish their highest-risk sexual predators. Missouri’s one-size-fits-all approach sends hundreds of sex offenders to Kansas, Illinois and Arkansas. Just across the state line, some find relief from the 1,000-foot residency restrictions. Others even end the shame of public registry. Full Article
FL: ACLU Sues to Stop Miami Homeless Sex-Offender Camp Evictions
[miaminewtimes.com 5/8/18] In 2007, New Times broke national news with a story about how a group of sex-offenders was forced to live in tents underneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway because of restrictive laws barring them from living within thousands of feet of schools or playgrounds. Their case became a focal point in efforts to reform the nation's laws governing sex criminals. After a local...
CA: L.A. County Sued Over Ban on Sex Offenders as Poll Workers [by ACSOL]
[usnews.com 5/7/18] LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two registered sex offenders are suing Los Angeles County for the right to become poll workers. City News Service says the suit filed Monday argues that the county's policy banning offenders violates state law and the Constitution. The suit was filed by two offenders who live in the county and by the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws,...
Military eyes child sex-assault solution without Congress
[tampabay.com 5/8/18] WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military officials have sought to ward off congressional efforts to address child-on-child sexual assaults on bases, even as they disclose that the problem is larger than previously acknowledged. Members of Congress expressed alarm and demanded answers after an Associated Press investigation revealed that reports of sexual violence among kids on U.S. military bases and at Pentagon-run schools are...
FL: Miami-Dade Sued Over Sex Offender Eviction
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] A Lawsuit and Emergency Motion for Temporary Injunction were filed against Miami-Dade County on behalf of registered sex offenders legislated into homelessness and directed to live at an encampment on a street corner alongside active railroad tracks in a warehouse district in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. This is the fourth such encampment created by the County, after sex offender residency restrictions exclude registrants...
IL: What to Do to Make Sure Your Family Doesn’t Rent a Motel Room Next to a Registered Sex Offender
[nbcchicago.com 5/7/18] Remember that a sex offender’s residency at a motel or inn is completely legal, and there is no obligation on the part of any establishment to research the background of a guest, or alert other guests to someone’s criminal history. There is also no specific obligation of any police agency, in the states we checked, to give notice directly to hotel or...
OR: He Was Convicted of Molesting a 6-Year Old. Should He Have a Future in Baseball?
[UPDATED LINKS 5/9/18] [nytimes.com 5/7/18] CORVALLIS, Ore. — __________, one of the best players in college baseball, and certainly its most controversial, strode to the mound, dusted away a patch of dirt with his cleats and lined up for his first pitch. The home crowd of nearly 3,000, most in orange and black, the colors of Oregon State, cheered, “Luke! Luke! Luke!” They wanted...
FL: Residents Of Homeless Sex Offender Camp Ordered Out Given Extension
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/18] MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Residents of a homeless sex offender camp near Hialeah who have been ordered to leave have been given an extension. Originally, they were supposed to be gone from their roadside refuge near NW 36th Avenue and 71st Street by sunrise Monday. Now they have until Thursday, May 10th, to pack up and go. Monday morning, Miami-Dade police showed up...
FL: Walls closing in on Miami-Dade homeless sex offender issue
[floridaactioncommittee.org 5/7/19] I guess someone didn’t let Ron Book’s “Homeless Trust” know about the reprieve, because according to Local10 news, “workers from Miami-Dade’s Homeless Trust arrived Sunday night with police to give the offenders their eighth and final warning.” In fact, the Deputy Mayor had given assurance to Attorney Jeffrey Hearne from Legal Services of Greater Miami, who had prepared to file an immediate...
MO: ‘Extremely complex’ sex offender residency restrictions are challenging to enforce
In an effort to keep Missouri children safe, lawmakers have enacted half a dozen laws over the past decade that restrict the rights of convicted sex offenders living among us. Full Article
ME: Sex offender’s art removed from Lewiston exhibit
[UPDATE LINKS 5/7/18] The University of Southern Maine has removed three works by a highly regarded oil painter from a gallery on its Lewiston-Auburn campus after learning that the artist is a sex offender, a decision that has prompted objections from the show’s curator and the Union of Maine Visual Artists. Full Article Related Articles https://www.pressherald.com/2018/05/06/sex-offenders-artwork-pulled-from-usm-show-at-lewiston-auburn-gallery/comments/ Arts pieces by Pelican Bay inmates on...
Sex Crimes and Criminal Justice
[washingtonspectator.org 5/4/18] Formerly incarcerated sex offenders say civil commitment programs deny proper rehabilitation May 4, 2018 By Barbara Koeppel Responding to several highly publicized sex crimes and public fears, legislatures across the country have adopted statutes that allow the continued imprisonment of sex offenders after they have completed their sentences. Veteran investigative reporter Barbara Koeppel has spent the past 12 months reporting on this...
BOP backs down on the restrictive book policy
[handbasketnotes.blogspot.com 5/5/18] Good news. The federal Bureau of Prisons has rescinded the policy changes that would have made it more expensive and more difficult for inmates to receive books. Ann E. Marimow at the Washington Post reports: The restrictions were already in place in facilities in Virginia and California and were set to start this month at a prison in Florida. Under the rules,...
NV: Sex offender registry changes will impact Lyon County numbers
[rgj.com 5/4/18] The number of Lyon County sex offenders registered on the Department of Public Safety’s website will increase with the implementation of a new statewide sex offender registration law. Nevada Legislature in 2007 approved AB579 to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act passed the year before. The law changes how sex offenders are classified and who must register...
A Rational Approach to the Role of Publicity and Condemnation in the Sentencing of Offenders
[ssrn.com 5/2/18] Florida State University Law Review, Vol. 46, 2019 38 Pages Posted: 2 May 2018 Mirko Bagaric Director of the Evidence-Based Sentencing and Criminal Justice Project, Swinburne University Law School Peter Isham Northwestern University, School of Law, Students Date Written: April 14, 2018 Abstract The punishment imposed on criminal offenders by courts often does not exhaust the hardship they experience. There are a...
OffenderWatch, the Largest Sex Offender Registry Network in the U.S., Awarded Contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
[watchsystems.com 5/4/18] COVINGTON, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OffenderWatch, the leading public safety sex offender registry network in the United States, is pleased to announce that it will be working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to modernize the Canadian National Sex Offender Registry. This marks the first time that OffenderWatch, headquartered in Covington, La., has worked with a law enforcement agency outside of the U.S. OffenderWatch...
CT: Keep statute of limitations; and another ‘liberal activist’
[journalinquirer.com 5/4/18] Arguing recently for the repeal of Connecticut's statute of limitations for sex offenses, Laura Cordes, executive director of the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, declared, "Justice should not have an expiration date." But justice often does have an expiration date, and not because of statutes of limitations but rather because as time passes evidence inevitably is lost, memories fade, and witnesses...