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
Janice's Journal
General News Feed
NY: Congress passes bill giving NY youth groups access to FBI sex offender database
[syracuse.com] WASHINGTON -- Sex offenders who move to New York state will no longer be able to exploit an FBI loophole when they apply for jobs at summer camps and other organizations that work with children, according to U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer. A bill passed by Congress authorizes the FBI to make its full database available for employer background checks, regardless of where an...
ACSOL Conference to Feature National Experts
The second annual ACSOL conference to be held on June 15 and June 16 will feature national experts Laurie Jo Reynolds, Dr. Ilan Meyer and Anokhi Shah. The conference will be held at Southwestern Law School, 3050 Wilshire Boulevard, in downtown Los Angeles. "Laurie Jo Reynolds is an activist, a social justice professor and an artist who understands the challenges registrants and their families...
Monitoring the Use of Electronic Monitoring
One February night in 2009, our phone rang. It was two in the morning. My 95-year-old mother was on the line. She told me she was having chest pains, thought she was having a heart attack, and had already called 911. Since she lived less than a mile away, my immediate response should have been to rush to her side. Instead, I dialed the 1-800...
AL: Colbert County Sheriff issues apology following “miscommunication” in sex offender notification
[whnt.com] Tuscumbia, Ala. – Colbert County’s top law enforcement officer issued an apology first thing Monday morning. A lack of communication with other law enforcement agencies in the county led to a delay in residents being notified of a sex offender registration. There are 122 registered sex offenders in Colbert County. It’s part of Sheriff Frank Williamson’s job to keep up with them. Recently,...
CT: Mother of victims wants schools to know if students are sex offenders
[theday.com] A New Fairfield mother who said her daughters were sexually assaulted by a family friend is pushing for a law that would require the state to notify a school superintendent when a juvenile who lives in the district and will enroll in school there is a convicted sexual offender. "We have all seen the horrible and tragic events that are unfolding too often...
FL: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Sex Offender Residency Restriction Declared Unconstitutional
[floridaactioncommittee.org] The Ft Lauderdale Sex Offender Residency Restriction was declared unconstitutional. Wait… what?!?! A Florida SORR was declared unconstitutional? YES! The municipal ordinance in the City of Ft. Lauderdale that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 1400 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, school bus stops, etc. was found to violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution! Hold on… what? Are you...
Congress Approves FY18 Funding Levels for Criminal Justice Programs
[csgjusticecenter.org] U.S. CapitolLast week, the U.S. Congress approved the $1.3 trillion Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations bill that would set government funding through Sep. 30, 2018. The bill provides $30.3 billion for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and includes $2.9 billion for various state and local law enforcement assistance grant programs. The bill increases funding for the Second Chance Act, from $68 million in...
NC: Abusing his authority, NC Sheriff goes “above and beyond” what the law allows
[narsol.org] By Robin Vander Wall . . . In June, 2017, a registered sex offender in Halifax County was visited by the sheriff’s office for his biannual verification check. Eight days later, and after successful verification of his address, the same registered sex offender was charged with kidnapping and attempting to rape a 1-year-old child. So much for the usefulness of verification checks, right?...
Supreme Court rule: (Other) justices shouldn’t conduct independent research
[washingtonpost.com] During last week’s Supreme Court arguments about crisis pregnancy centers, Justice Sonia Sotomayor introduced a long line of questions by saying she had recently visited the website of one of the clinics that is a party to the suit. Eventually, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy broke in to ask his own question, but not before tossing a grenade Sotomayor’s way. “Well, in this case...
US Senate pass measure to fight sex trafficking, bill heads to Trump
[abs-cbn.com] WASHINGTON - The US Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday aimed at countering sex trafficking that allows victims of such exploitation to seek justice against website owners who knowingly promote or facilitate it. Senators voted 97-2 to pass the measure, which cleared the House of Representatives last month and now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump's signature. Supporters hailed the...
OH: CSU QB isn’t on sex offender registry because conviction came as minor
[reformohio.blogspot.com] Central State University football player ______ was convicted in 2013 along with a Steubenville High School teammate of raping a 16-year-old girl who was incapacitated by alcohol. But because ____was a juvenile at the time, his conviction does not appear on the sex offender registry. If not for widespread publicity of the crime, ____'s conviction would be unknown to many of his fellow...
Leading-Edge Law: College-Picking Time: Talk with Your Child About Sex Offenses and Investigate Due Process
[richmond.com] High school seniors are in the process of making college selections. But before picking a school, investigate how prospective colleges handle sex-related offenses and talk with your child about this issue. This concerns the quality of due process on college campuses for students accused of sex-related offenses. “Due process” means the fairness to the accused of the process for adjudicating these charges. It...
KS: Changes to juvenile offender registration shelved
[gctelegram.com] TOPEKA — A Kansas House bill contemplating changes to juvenile offender registration has been delayed so that it can be reviewed by the Judicial Council. The council will review the legislation and make recommendations on how to proceed, Rep. J. Russell Jennings, R-Lakin, said during a committee meeting last week. No legislative action is expected this session. Last month, three people spoke in...
What BYP100 Director Charlene Carruthers Wishes She Knew About Community Organizing
[teenvogue.com] I wasn’t born a leader; I was agitated into choosing leadership by growing up on the South Side of Chicago. I didn’t wake up at 18 understanding what white supremacy, patriarchy, anti-blackness, and capitalism meant. Self-study, comrades, elders, and people I met in the streets taught me how to understand the world and gave me the room to imagine a radically different future......
KS: Can letting ex-offenders work make us safer? One state wants to find out
[rstreet.org] Which of the last two presidents vowed to give ex-offenders a second chance in a State of the Union Address? You could hardly be blamed for guessing President Barack Obama, but the answer is President Trump. The quote made headlines due to its peculiarity coming from the “law and order” candidate, but it revealed that even hardliners like Trump are considering better ways...
FL: Gov. Rick Scott Signs Two Sex Offender Bills Into Law
[UPDATED LINKS 3/26/18] [flsenate.gov, spacecoastdaily.com] As reported on spacecoastdaily.com State website links: https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/01301 CS/HB 1301: Sexual Offenders and Predators. GENERAL BILL by Justice Appropriations Subcommittee ; Fitzenhagen ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Hager ; Spano Sexual Offenders and Predators; Reducing aggregate & consecutive number of days used to determine residency for purposes of sexual predator or sexual offender registration; provides for mandatory sentence of community control with...
AL: Will state legislators render teachers ‘improper’ sex cops?
[al.com] We want schools to be educational safe havens for our children. At the same time, public policies designed to make schools safer may carry unintended consequences. Legislation making teachers liable for policing "improper sexual conduct" is winding its way through the Alabama Legislature, and it shouldn't become law without serious vetting by legislators. Senator Clyde Chambliss (R-Autauga County) introduced SB26 responding to a...
CT: Nursing home can continue to service sex offenders, Judge says
[floridaactioncommittee.org] A Connecticut Superior Court Judge allowed a Rocky Hill Nursing Facility to remain open and servicing its patients, after the Town tried to shut it down, finding the fact that it provides care to prison parolees does not violate Rocky Hill’s zoning code. The Hartford Courant reported that “neighbors testified during the trial in August that the presence of sex offenders had caused...
OH: Sex offender says Ohio’s registry ‘destroys lives,’ should be abolished
[mydaytondailynews.com] CINCINNATI — Derek Logue is a member of one of the few groups it is socially acceptable for people to openly hate. He knows online comments on this story will likely refer to him in the most vulgar terms, and no one will come to his defense. But Logue said people like him are being unfairly discriminated against, and he thinks something should...
FL: Orange Beach homicide victim identified as registered sex offender
[weartv.com] The Orange Beach Police Department has identified a homicide victim as a registered sex offender. Police said 53-year-old Raymond Curtis Dudley has been identified as the body found Thursday near Cypress Street and Wolf Bay. Investigators say Dudley is originally from Massachusetts and a registered sex offender. Police are asking anyone who may have been in contact with Dudley on March 21 to...