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
WA: Law Would Reduce Severity of Charges for Teens Who Send, View Sexually Explicit Images
[chronline.com] The state Senate a week ago passed legislation amending state law to reduce charges against teens over 12 years old for sending, producing or viewing sexually explicit material of other teens over 12 years old from a felony to a misdemeanor charge. According to a news release from the Washington state Senate Democrats, the changes reflect the distinction between the sending of sexually...
IN: Sex offender registry levels stiff penalties
The Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry is designed to protect the citizens of the state of Indiana — but some convicted offenders may become victim to stringent, statutory requirements. Full Article
TX: Weekend Read: They served their prison sentences, but they’re still locked up
[splcenter.org] Jason Schoenfeld already served a full prison sentence, but he’s back behind bars — not because of what he’s done, but because of what the state of Texas says he might do. Schoenfeld entered a detention center in Littlefield, Texas more than two years ago. Located in a remote corner of the Texas Panhandle, it was once a prison and currently houses a...
FL: Registrant Denied Access to Hospital For Son’s Surgery
[floridaactioncommittee.org] A member contacted us this week. He’s on the registry for an offense that took place over 15 years ago. He brought his son to Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando for surgery and was denied access at the door because of his status on the registry. These policies that prevent former offenders from ever parenting their children are ridiculous! When someone looks back...
OR: OSU to require students with felony convictions, sex-offender status to self-report
[katu.com] CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State University said Thursday that a new policy will go into effect this fall that will require new and continuing students to self-report past felony convictions and whether they are registered sex offenders before enrolling in classes. The new policy was formed after it was reported in June 2017 that the university’s star baseball pitcher Luke Heimlich was a...
FL: Sex offenders — decision needed
[narsol.org] By Sandy . . . Some members of our society are shadow people, so marginalized that they are hanging on by their fingernails. Some have a slightly firmer grip, but they are perched precariously close to the edge, so close that they can be hurled into the abyss by a mere word, accusation, or click of a mouse. In Florida colonies of these...
NY: Governor Cuomo Announces 30-Day Budget Amendment to Protect New York’s Children from Sex Offenders
[governor.ny.gov] Action Will Prohibit Level 2 and 3 Sex Offenders From Being Within 1,000 Feet of Kindergarten and Pre-K Schools. Ban Sex Offenders From Staying in Temporary Emergency Housing or Shelters Where Families Live. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a 30-day budget amendment will be advanced to protect children in New York State. The amendment will restrict sex offenders whose victims are under...
GA: He was arrested for a sex act that’s no longer a crime. Years later, he remains convicted
[washingtonpost.com] Charlton Green was 20 when he was arrested after having oral sex with a 16-year-old male in a Georgia hotel room. He was convicted of a sex crime — not because the act was not consensual (it was), nor because the teen was not within the age of consent (in Georgia, it is 16). He was convicted because the incident happened in 1997,...
NE: Bill would expand authority for mental health professionals
[UPDATED links 2/18/18] [nebfacts.blogspot.com] The Judiciary Committee held a hearing this week on another bill worth watching. While not focusing exclusively on registered citizens, LB964 does use the fear of the "dangerous sex offender" as a selling point. Mental health professionals would have the same authority as law enforcement to place people in emergency protective custody under a bill heard by the Judiciary Committee...
FL: More Than Half the Registered Sex Offenders in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida are Homeless
[floridaactioncommittee.org] The City of Ft. Lauderdale’s ordinance has caused more than half of the registered sex offenders in the city to be homeless. The City ordinance, which banishes sex offenders from; “within one thousand four hundred (1,400) feet of any of the following:(1) Any school where the majority of the population attending are students less than sixteen (16) years of age; (2) Designated public...
CA: Changes Are Coming to California Sex Offender Registry
[independent.com] Fifty-four sex offenders live within two miles of the Santa Barbara Independent’s Figueroa Street offices. Their mugshots, height, weight, ethnicity, eye color, home addresses, criminal charges, and date they were released from jail are listed on the Megan’s Law website. That is about to change. California lawmakers voted last year to reduce the length of time required for sex-offender registration. This means a...
The Evolution of Unconstitutionality in Sex Offender Registration Laws by Catherine L. Carpenter [paper]
[papers.ssrn.com] Abstract More is not always better. Consider sex offender registration laws. Initially anchored by rational basis, registration schemes have spiraled out of control because legislators, eager to please a fearful public, have been given unfettered freedom by a deferential judiciary. This particular article does not challenge the state’s legislative power to enact sex offender registration laws. Instead, this piece posits that, even if...
Reason and the Soho Forum Want to Know, Do We Abolish the Registry?
[UPDATED links 2/21/18] [sexlawandpolicy.org] Dr. Emily Horowitz, noted sex offense policy researcher, and Marci Hamilton, child safety advocate, went toe-to-toe in an engaging debate Monday night, which may be a first of its kind on the need for sex offender registries. On the resolution for whether the laws requiring those convicted of sex offenses to put their names in a registry should be abolished,...
PA: Sex offender resigns as fire chief in Pennsylvania town
[startribune.com] SPARTANSBURG, Pa. — A registered sex offender who was recently re-elected as chief of a Pennsylvania town's volunteer fire department has resigned. The (Corry) Journal reports that Roger Gilbert Jr. quit the Spartansburg department Sunday, a day after the newspaper reported on his criminal background. Gilbert tells the Journal that he will "no longer be affiliated with any organization that helps anyone." He...
N. Ireland: Self-styled ‘paedophile hunters’ revealed
[bbc.com - UPDATED LINKS 2/15/18] Some of the leaders of self-styled paedophile-hunting groups operating in Northern Ireland have been identified for the first time. There are increasing concerns about the methods many of the groups use, and their lack of accountability. The so-called paedophile-hunting groups target people online who they believe are sexual predators. They confront them and broadcast the encounter live on the...
ID: Scams Targeting Registered Sex Offenders
[kpvi.com] The Idaho Central Sex Offender Registry, administered by the Idaho State Police, has been made aware of several attempted scams targeting registered sex offenders in at least one Idaho county and six Florida counties. One scam involves a caller posing as a law enforcement officer who tells the sex offender that they have missing or out-of-date registration information. The caller then threatens that,...
FL: Maxwell: Sun Sentinel Editorial: Gov. Rick Scott has no credibility on rights restoration
[floridaactioncommittee.org] Gov. Rick Scott claims that he, not a federal judge, should determine how Florida restores the civil rights of ex-felons. Seriously? That would be like having Bill Belichick design the Dolphins’ game plans against the Patriots. Watch the video: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/95047063-132.html Scott made this absurd argument Monday in response to the Feb. 1 ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker that Florida’s Jim Crow-era...
Should the Sex Offender Registry Be Abolished? A Live Debate.
Should the sex offender registry be abolished? Watch a live debate at the Soho Forum between Emily Horowitz, a sociologist at St. Francis College, and Marci Hamilton from the University of Pennsylvania and CHILD USA. Video Emily Horowitz was the Featured Speaker / Keynote Presenter at the 2017 ACSOL Conference and will return as a speaker / presenter to the 2018 ACSOL Conference. Related NY:...
CO: Senate committee turns down bill to change indefinite sentencing for sex offenders
The Senate Judiciary Committee Monday voted down a bill that would change the state’s laws on indefinite sentencing for sex offenders. The measure, Senate Bill 17, would allow judges to determine on a case-by-case basis whether to sentence sex offenders to “indeterminate sentences,” which in some cases means a life sentence. Full Article
MO: Legislature considers updating sex offender registry
State legislators are talking about updating Missouri’s sex offender registry to be more in line with the federal system. Under State Rep. Kurt Bahr’s proposal, three tiers of offenses would be created, corresponding with how serious the crime was, the 3rd, being the most heinous. Full Article