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
Former House speaker sentenced to more than a year in prison
CHICAGO (AP) — Dennis Hastert, the Republican who for eight years presided over the House and was second in the line of succession to the presidency, was sentenced Wednesday to more than a year in prison in the hush-money case that included accusations he sexually abused teenagers while coaching high school wrestling. Full Article
UK: Defending Ched Evans has made me guilty by association
Sticking up for Ched Evans, maintaining in this column that the Welsh footballer was the victim of a miscarriage of justice, has been a pretty horrible experience. Full Article
MI: Indecent exposure, criminal past brings sex offender prison term of 1 day to life
A man who exposed himself near a Grandville mall and later took video of a woman in a Tanger Outlet Mall changing room is heading to prison for what could be the rest of his life. Full Article
KS: ‘Denial of justice’ to delay Kansas Supreme Court rulings for eight months, justice says
A Kansas Supreme Court justice accused his colleagues of denying justice by delaying a series of opinions for eight months after they were decided, a tactic that changed the court’s precedent and accentuated the sway a single justice’s appointment can have. Full Article
NY: PFML sues a poor man from another state in retaliation for Internet comments
The Suffolk nonprofit hired by the county to monitor registered sex offenders has sued a Cincinnati registered sex offender, accusing him of defaming the group with his online posts. Full Article
Registered Citizen Granted Contractor’s License
The Contractors State License Board has granted a contractor's license to a registered citizen who initially applied for a license, but whose license was denied because he is required to register as a sex offender. The Board's reversal of its initial decision came after a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge on March 28, 2016. According to the judge, the registered citizen provided substantial,...
PA: Supreme Court to hear registration appeals from 3 sex offenders
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals by three convicted child molesters, including a Harrisburg man and a former Lancaster County teacher, who claim they wrongly are being forced to register with state police for life. Full Article
In a single day, the Kansas Supreme Court issues important constitutional opinions — and overrules them (Opinion)
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. On Friday the Kansas Supreme Court issued decisions in three cases — State v. Buser, State v. Redmond and Doe v. Thompson — holding that Kansas’s Offender Registration Act, requiring anyone previously convicted of various violent felonies, drug crimes or sex offenses to register with state authorities, cannot be constitutionally applied to people whose...
NJ: Is it time to revisit and revamp Megan’s Law in NJ?
A peculiar thing — actually, two —happened on the way to banning New Jersey sex offenders from social media sites. First, the proposal was scaled back over concerns it wasn’t legal. Then, lawmakers heard from a lawyer whose practice is focused on Megan’s Law cases who says New Jersey law in this area is misdirected and merits a top-to-bottom re-evaluation by a task force...
PA: A wide-ranging look at sex offender registration in PA and beyond
The Cumberland County (Pennsylvania) Sentinel recently published a series of articles by Joshua Vaughn that examine the operation and effect of sex offender registration laws from a variety of perspectives. We summarize the articles with links to the Sentinel’s website. Full Article
VT: High court orders re-evaluation of sex offender’s conditions
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday that some conditions placed on a convicted sex offender were overbroad and in some cases too restrictive because they weren’t specifically connected to his crime. Full Article
SD: A second chance for sex offenders
South Dakota's sex offenders were given a new avenue to get off the state registry, but few have taken the path to clearing their name. According to legislation passed in July 2010, sex offenders are placed into three tiers dependent upon their offenses. If they follow their treatment programs and don't re-offend, people in the first and second tier are eligible to get off...
Final Presence Restrictions Lawsuit Ends in Settlement
The City of Carson has agreed to settle the final presence restrictions lawsuit pending in the state of California. A total of 31 lawsuits were filed starting with the City of Lancaster in December 2012. As a result of these lawsuits, the only presence restriction that remains is a state law that prohibits registrants on parole from visiting public parks without first obtaining permission...
Government Files Motion to Dismiss IML Lawsuit [updated with Opposition to Motion to Dismiss]
The federal government filed a Motion to Dismiss the IML lawsuit this week. The government's motion is based upon allegations that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing and that the challenge to the addition of a unique identifier to passports is not yet ripe. "The government's Motion to Dismiss the IML lawsuit must be taken seriously," stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci. "The...
Janice’s Journal: This Wall Will Fall
In our community of registered citizens, the wall of injustice is thick and high. It is thick due to the public’s failure to see the truth and it is high due to laws that have been passed for more than 50 years. Why does the public fail to see the truth about registered citizens? After all, there are hundreds of studies and reports published...
KS: Sex offenders win and lose in unusual rulings by the Kansas Supreme Court
In an apparently unprecedented series of rulings, the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday overruled three of its own Friday opinions regarding state sex offender registration laws. In three separate opinions issued Friday, the court found 2011 changes to the sex offender registry law cannot be applied retroactively to offenders convicted before the law took effect. But then in a fourth opinion also released Friday, the...
‘Untouchable’: Tribeca Review
The debut feature documentary from David Feige, former attorney-turned-author and now filmmaker, is a thorough and thought-provoking examination of its theme. But the theme is not quite as straightforward as the viewer initially assumes. What starts out as an exploration of the highly emotive, hot-button topic of sexual offenses – particularly those in which children are the victims – turns out to be an...
CA RSOL Meeting in San Diego – June 18
California RSOL's June meeting will take place in San Diego on June 18. The meeting will start at 10 am at California Western School of Law, Room LH2 at 225 Cedar Street, San Diego, CA 92101 Topics of discussion will include general issues facing registrants and their families as well as pertinent current issues, such as the recent International Megan's Law lawsuit. The meetings are intended for registrants, friends...
How can a sex offender be rehabilitated if following the rules does not count? (Letter to the Editor)
West Virginia lawmakers, upon discovering that a young man working as a legislative intern was on the sex offender registry, promptly fired him and are now revising the hiring process to prevent a registrant from being hired in the future. Full Letter Background Lawmakers to overhaul intern rules after sex offender hired
AB 2569 passed by Assembly Public Safety Committee
The Public Safety Committee today passed an amended version of Assembly Bill (AB) 2569. The bill, authored by committee vice chair Melissa Melendez, originally removed an exemption for some registrants convicted of incest from being added to the Megan's Law website. The amended version of the bill requires the California Department of Justice to interview the victim of the offense and to make a...