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
WI: Sex offenders branded for life
____ ____ is a convicted sex offender who cannot escape his past. The 44-year-old Fond du Lac man served five years in prison for sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in 1991. He was 19 years old when he forced her to have sex with him, court records indicate. Full Article
ME: 10 years after sex offender murders, questions linger about Maine’s registry
One morning in March, Bangor Police Detective Jeremy Brock and Officer Dustin Dow made their rounds. Two of their stops included the Ranger Inn on outer Hammond Street and a boarding house on Union Street. Each week, Brock usually spends a day on such visits, checking that the 120 or so registered sex offenders in Bangor are living where they have said they’re living....
ME: This sex assault victim says the offender registry listing is more important to her than prison time
For Tina Dionne, it’s more important for the man who sexually assaulted her as a child to register as a sex offender than serve time in prison. Full Article
Sen. Runner Withdraws Bill From Hearing
Senator Sharon Runner has withdrawn Senate Bill 1021 from further consideration. The bill, which would have allowed local governments to prohibit some registered citizens from living in their cities and counties, was scheduled to be heard on April 19 by the Senate Public Safety Committee. Runner's withdrawal of the bill is reported to be linked to her failing health, however, it may also be...
Janice’s Journal: IML – Court Denies Request for Preliminary Injunction
Today the dragon won. That is, the federal government was given permission to continue its implementation of the International Megan’s Law (IML). The U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California denied our Motion for Preliminary Injunction which attempted to stop the government’s addition of a Scarlet letter to the passports of American citizens as well the government’s notifications to foreign countries that...
NY: WE NEED TO RETURN POWER TO LOCAL GOV’T TO PROTECT OUR COMMUNITIES FROM SEX OFFENDERS
(Long Island, NY) Assemblyman Dean Murray (R,C,I- East Patchogue) hosted a press conference today to highlight the need to fix laws pertaining to the sex offender registry to help keep our children and communities safe. Since the start of 2016, some level one sex offenders have been removed from the registry, while a State Appeals Court decision last year removed all local restrictions on...
Congressman Nadler Introduces the Keep Kids Safe Act to Stop Sex Offenders Who Target Children from Owning or Acquiring a Gun
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation to prevent guns from getting into the hands of sex offenders who prey on children. Federal law prohibits persons convicted of a felony from buying, selling, or possessing guns or ammunition, yet it is perfectly legal for someone convicted a misdemeanor sex crime against a minor to...
CO: Supreme court says towns can ban sex offenders
Can a municipality pass an ordinance that effectively bans any registered sex offender from living there? That was the issue in Ryals v. City of Englewood, which the Colorado Supreme Court decided recently. Full Column Opinion
MN: Appeals court hears challenge to constitutionality of Minnesota Sex Offender Program
A federal appeals court in St. Louis heard oral arguments Tuesday about whether the state of Minnesota’s sex offender treatment program violates the Constitution with its practice of indefinite detention. The case before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals could force the state to make a series of politically unpopular reforms to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), which has come under fire for...
After Cosby’s accusers testify, Legislature weighs eliminating statute of limitations for sex crimes
After wrenching testimony that included accounts from three alleged victims of comedian Bill Cosby, a Senate committee on Tuesday gave its first approval to a bill that would allow sex crimes to be prosecuted no matter how long ago they occurred. Full Article SB 813 Leyva - Justice for Victims Act - Press Conference 4-12-16
Living with 290: If I had been straight
My experiences with 290 have shown me that contrary to everything I have ever believed, our law enforcement and judicial systems are both corrupt and unjust. Allow me to share my story, albeit a bit lengthy. I am an older gay male raised in a time when it was still considered mental illness. So I have not been open or out about my sexuality...
Living with 290: Don’t give up
I have been really touched by all the Story's and family tragedy's I have read here! I think you are all brave for sharing your stories. I can relate to all of you and I can relate to the negatives! I was always on the other side looking in, until it happened to me! I am from San Francisco, and 25 years ago, I...
WI: Cottage Grove man admits setting fire to sex offender’s future home
MADISON (WKOW) -- A Cottage Grove man Monday admitted to setting fire to the future home of a sex offender, and was convicted of felony arson. 51-year old Russell Speigle will be sentenced next month. The crime carries a maximum sentence of forty years. But a plea agreement between Speigle and the Dane County district attorney's office involves prosecutors asking for no more than...
Are Sex Offenders White?
There’s a striking difference between the sex offender featured in most journalism, activist campaigns and popular media and the guy who’s usually the focus of criminal justice attention. The latter is usually a person of color. The sex offender is portrayed as white. But is the sex offender really white? Full Article
NE: State appeals decision barring state from adding boy to state’s sex offender list
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska’s attorney general is appealing a federal judge’s decision to block the state from putting a 13-year-old boy who moved to Nebraska from Minnesota on its public list of sex offenders. Full Article
FL: Florida sex offender registry: double-digit growth
More than a dozen people a day walk into the Orange County Sheriff's Office and register as sex offenders. The county is home to more than 2,200 of them. A recent study by researchers at the Florida Legislature found that the number of registered sex offenders living in Florida communities has increased 44 percent over the past 10 years. Full Article Related Fla. sex...
International Travel after IML
Discussion for the effects on IML on International Travel is to go here, since some of the other discussion threads have become inappropriate in topic or too large. We will move some of the more recent comments here. Please be sure to also see International Travel – Mexico International Travel – China / Thailand International Travel Experiences International Megan’s Law – International Travel Action...
Don’t Just Get Kids Off the Sex Offender Registry. Abolish It (Opinion)
Recently the New Yorker published a major article about juvenile “sex offenders.” The story, by staff writer Sarah Stillman, is far ranging, moving and important. Stillman writes about many young people who were caught doing anything from playing doctor to sexually coercing another person (usually another child). Convicted for sex crimes, some of these youth are incarcerated and subject to lifelong sex offender registration—a...
WA: Supreme Court – Records of low-level sex offenders are public
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington's Supreme Court says information about low-level sex offenders can be released under the state Public Records Act. The 7-1 decision Thursday overturns a King County Superior Court holding that found the records were not subject to disclosure. The ruling came in a case involving Donna Zink, a Franklin County woman who requested a copy of the Washington State Patrol's...
FL: Concerning the Registrants at the Tracks
As mentioned in a prior post; the ACLU filed it's Appellate Brief on behalf of FAC and the 200+ registered citizens living alongside the railroad tracks at the corner of 79th Street and NW 36th Avenue in Miami. Derek Logue of OnceFallen.com, who had traveled to Florida last week and visited the encampment initiated a post to which FAC replied. Since our reply contained...