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.
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Janice’s Journal: Silver Linings to the Dark Cloud of the International Megan’s Law
International Megan’s Law is a terrible law. Its notification provisions trap registrants in a country that continues to punish them and its passport provisions expose them to significant risk of harm due to the addition of a “Scarlet letter”. Having said that, however, there is a silver lining to that dark cloud -- our community came together and we acted in concert for the...
OH: House Passes Legislation To Require Mandatory Prison Sentences For Sex Offenders
The Ohio House of Representatives has pushed forward legislation that will require a mandatory prison sentence for sex offenders. House Bill 405 establishes a mandatory prison sentence for soliciting a child under 13 years old to engage in sexual activity. The bill also stipulates that if an offender is more than 10 years older than a victim, who is 13 to 16-years-old, the offender...
IML Lawsuit Media Articles (updated 2/19)
Added 2/19 http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/19/21st-century-public-shaming/ http://www.downtownexpress.com/2016/02/18/dont-brand-sex-offenders-passports/ http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/news-sex-offenders-megans-law-obama/Content?oid=4486073 Added 2/12 https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/02/12/civil-rights-group-files-lawsuit-questioning-constitutionality-of-international-megans-law/ http://kron4.com/2016/02/10/sex-offenders-to-be-identified-federal-passports-law/ Added 2/11 https://pcjc.blogs.law.pace.edu/2016/02/11/international-megans-law-h-r-515-necessary-constitutional/ http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2016/02/11/u-s-passports-of-sex-offenders-to-be-marked/ http://nationalrsol.org/blog/2016/02/09/first-lawsuit-challenging-intl-megans-law-filed-in-ca-federal-court/ 2-10-16: International Megan’s Law Conference Call (National RSOL) https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-authorized-create-angel-watch-center-expand-child-protection-efforts-following Added 2/10 http://reason.com/blog/2016/02/10/lawsuit-says-scarlet-letter-passports-fo http://www.courthousenews.com/CNSNEWS/Story/Index/86768 http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/02/09/civil-rights-group-opposes-law-identifying-sex-offenders-on-passports/ http://www.newsweek.com/civil-rights-group-sex-offender-passports-marking-state-department-424754 http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sex-offender-passport-20160209-story.html http://fox40.com/2016/02/09/sex-offenders-challenge-new-federal-passports-law/ http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/02/obama_signs_international_megans_law.html
Obama Just Signed a Really Bad Criminal Justice Law
Is this really the best Congress can do? - After months of hype about the historic bipartisan consensus that we must make the American criminal justice system less harsh, President Obama finally signed a justice reform bill into law Monday. There’s only one problem: Instead of making the justice system more fair and less punitive, the new law will make it more vindictive and...
President Signed HR 515, International Megan’s Law
President Obama signed HR 515 into law on February 8. The law will require federal agencies to notify destination countries that registered citizens are coming to visit as well as to require the Secretary of State to add a "unique identifier" to the passports of some registered citizens. "The President's decision, if unchallenged, would require the Secretary of State to add a Scarlet Letter to the...
UT: Amendment to lower time on Sex Offender Registry on House floor
SALT LAKE CITY — Amendments to HB16 would allow those who have been charged with crimes like voyeurism or "enticing a minor" to be dropped from the Sex Offender Registry in five years instead of 10. "Almost everyone is the legislature knows someone in this situation and has been asked to please do something about it," said Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan. For the...
Sex offenders face obstacles from well-intended laws
I've been trying to help a sex offender I'll call George to find a home plan in preparation for his release from prison in March. I've known this man for 10 years. His crimes are computer crimes and stupidity. Will he re-offend? Of course I don't know. I do know it's statistically unlikely that he would molest a child. But I don't know. What...
7th Circuit OKs sex-offender GPS monitoring
Wisconsin lawmakers didn’t violate the U.S. Constitution when they mandated that anyone deemed to be a sexually violent person wear a GPS monitoring device following his or her release from civil commitment, a federal appeals court has held. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a state statute requiring such persons to wear a monitoring device for the rest of their...
General Comments February 2016
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of February 2016. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
HR 515 Articles (Collection – updated 2/8)
All articles about HR 515 in one place...
Congress votes to stigmatize and surveil the travel of second-class US citizens
Can second-class US citizens be required to carry second-class US passports with a conspicuous stigmatizing “scarlet letter” label? Congress has now said yes. Do DHS pre-cogs have the omniscience and infallibility of angels at predicting and protecting the US and the world against future crimes? Congress has now said yes. Full Article
Obama Could Still Stop ‘Megan’s Law’ From Making Sex Offenders Get Special Passports
Both the U.S. House and Senate have signed off on a bill to brand registered sex offenders as such on their passports and require federal officials to notify foreign governments whenever certain offenders intend to travel there. The bill is now on its way to President Obama; it's unclear whether he'll sign. If he does, it will be "the first time in U.S. history that...
Congress Acts to Mark Passports of Sex Offenders
Target of legislation is sex-traffickers; critics call it a ‘scarlet letter.’ Legislation requiring the State Department to identify registered sex offenders with a special mark on their passports received final passage in the House of Representatives on Monday night and went to President Obama’s desk. The White House has not indicated whether President Obama plans to sign the bill. Full Article
Janice’s Journal: We Must Answer This Grave Injustice to the U.S. Constitution
It took six weeks. Only six weeks for Congress to make a historic decision without any discussion or debate about its significance. That decision is the addition of “unique identifiers” to the passports of U.S. citizens. This has never happened before in the history of our country and has only happened in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. The U.S. Senate struck the first blow...
This is how to pass a bill with no facts to support it
The discussion in the U.S. House pertinent to International Megan's Law has ended with a vote to pass the resolution under suspension of the rules. Ten legislators spoke in favor of the bill. They all threw out a lot of numbers, sometimes in conflict with each other, all designed to draw conclusions that cannot be concluded with any degree of logic. Remember that the...
IL: Jail inmates target female guards, lawyers with sexual abuse
They call themselves Savage Life. Inmates facing charges of murder, rape and other serious crimes formed the gang about six months ago in the Cook County Jail. Their goal is to sow chaos, officials say. They physically attack guards. ... And they expose themselves and masturbate in the presence of female defense attorneys and female correctional officers. ... A bill sponsored by state Sen....
Should a 9-year-old Be Branded a Sex Offender for Life? [Opinion]
Southwestern Law School professor Catherine Carpenter put it bluntly in her new research paper, "Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative." "Truth be told," she wrote, "we are afraid for our children and we are afraid of our children." Full Article
WI: Court upholds GPS tracking of sex offender convicted before law passed
Making a Wisconsin sex offender wear a GPS anklet for life, when he was convicted before that was the law, does not violate the constitutional prohibition against retroactive punishment, a federal appeals court has ruled. Full Article
TX: Court orders 83-year-old sex offender freed
AUSTIN -- In a decision that could presage other releases, a state appeals court in Beaumont on Thursday ordered an 83-year-old man be immediately freed from a controversial supervision program for sex offenders because he no longer qualifies to be in it. The order by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was the first complete release of an offender from the program in its...
Judge Gives Man 5 Days for Child Porn, Rails Against Harsh Sentences
A Brooklyn man who faced 10 years for downloading child pornography was sentenced to five days by a federal judge who sharply criticized punishment guidelines for failing to distinguish between dangerous offenders and those who pose little threat. Full Article