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
FL: Treasure Island to list sex offenders on city cable channel
TREASURE ISLAND — City residents will soon see pictures and information about sexual predators and offenders living in their neighborhoods on their local TV channel. Full Article
Editorial: New residency restrictions help officers keep better tabs on high risk sex
The numbers are alarming. California voters thought they had locked down all sex offenders in the state, preventing them from living near where children congregated. But a change in policy spurred by a court decision has dropped that number under the state's residency restriction from 100 percent to 24 percent. Full Article
CA State Legislature to Consider Presence Restrictions Bill on Jan. 12
The Assembly's Public Safety Committee has scheduled a hearing on January 12 during which it will consider Assembly Bill (AB) 201. The bill, if passed, would allow local governments to adopt laws that restrict where a registered citizen may be present such as parks, libraries, swimming pools and fast food restaurants. If the bill is passed, the lawsuits filed during the past two years that eliminated...
MN: Former sex offenders left out in the cold by city residency restrictions
A City of Milwaukee ordinance passed by the Common Council in July 2014 is making it nearly impossible for former sex offenders to find housing. The ordinance restricts these ex-offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school, licensed day care center, park, recreation trail or playground. Full Article
MN: Order Halts Changes to Minnesota Sex Offender Program
A federal appeals court has granted a full stay of a judge's order requiring changes to Minnesota's sex offender program. Full Article
SCOTUS declines to hear Ex-Post Facto case
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a registered citizen the opportunity to further challenge whether a registration law applied to him retroactively violates the Constitution. As a result, the Court will not hear the case and his legal challenge to that law has ended. At issue was whether the retroactive application of a sex offender program violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the...
TX: Signs not answer to sexual assault
The passage of the recent ordinance requiring sex offenders to place a sign in their yard has generated quite a furor over how unfair this ordinance is to the offender and his or her family. Full Article
False Allegations and the UCMJ
Reggie Yager, a Major in the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps, has written an extremely thorough article about false allegations and sexual assault prosecutions under the UCMJ. Before Senators McCaskill and Gillibrand focused on the sexual assault epidemic that plagued universities, they were highly entrenched in the invisible war of sexual violence plaguing the military. I would hope that a military law review...
Program promotes healing and safety
One of the best ways to keep kids safe and away from sex offenders is to provide a network of support around them. That was the message presented Friday night by Alison Feigh, director of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, at the Northland Arboretum. Full Article
TX: A first – visiting judge in Texas frees violent sex offender
HOUSTON (AP) — A visiting judge in Conroe has ordered, for the first time, the full release of a violent sex offender from the Texas civil commitment program. Reiter ruled that keeping May in the program would be unconstitutional. The state plans an appeal. Full Article
Janice’s Journal: Preparing for the Spotlight
This is not a movie review. It is, however, my reaction to a movie. A movie that could bring negative attention to all who have been convicted of a sex offense. The movie is “Spotlight” which has just been released and has already been nominated as best picture by the Screen Actors Guild and may be nominated for an Academy Award. The movie is...
Washington Post: The biggest Pinocchios of 2015
No single issue earned more Pinocchios than dubious claims about sex trafficking. There are not 300,000 children at risk for sexual exploitation. There are not 100,000 children in the sex trade. Human trafficking is not a $9.5 billion business in the United States. Girls do not become victims of sex trafficking at an average age of 13 years. The federal government has not arrested...
NC: Officials say Brunswick sex offender court, while controversial, works
BRUNSWICK COUNTY -- Southeastern North Carolina became the home of what officials there think is the first sex offender accountability and rehabilitation court program in the state after Ola Lewis noticed a trend in her Superior Court courtroom. Lewis, the senior resident Superior Court judge for Brunswick County, considered starting the court after several sex offenders came into her courthouse for violating the terms of...
CA: Most Sex Offender Parolees Exempt from Ban
Three-quarters of California's paroled sex offenders previously banned from living near parks, schools and other places where children congregate now face no housing restrictions after the state changed its policy in response to a court ruling that said the prohibition only applies to child molesters, according to data compiled at the request of The Associated Press. Full Article In other news outlets http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ap-exclusive-sex-offender-parolees-exempt-ban-35750104 http://www.redding.com/news/wire-news/most-sex-offender-parolees-exempt-from-ban...
CO: DA – No charges in school sexting scandal
CANON CITY — The district attorney will not file charges against 106 students identified as participating in swapping 351 nude or questionable photos of their classmates following a month-long investigation into a sexting case. Full Article
Impact Justice: The Center on Youth Registration Reform
The Center on Youth Registration Reform aims to eliminate the practice of placing children on sex offender registries in the United States. Using a zealous, unwavering, yet tactical strategy, the Center works to confront the fears and misconceptions about children that drove our country to include them in sex offender registration schemes, and transform the paradigm of how the criminal justice system responds to...
Lawyer: sex offender dad keeping custody was the right decision
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — An attorney representing a registered sex offender says he's happy with the court's ruling to not award custody to the child's mother. Full Article Related Registered sex offender keeps custody of daughter
OR: Law could make sex offender data more accessible
There are 115 sex offenders registered in Baker County but only one will show up in a search of the Oregon State Police’s website. ... The reason for the lack of information about registered sex offenders online is the result of Oregon law that prior to January 2014 limited OSP’s authority to list sex offenders on public websites to only those deemed “predatory” by...
Every Teenage Boy in America Is a Felon
If you are a male living in the United States above the age of 12, raise your hand if you have never looked at, possessed or shared a picture of a naked female (or male). If you have, you may be a felon subject to imprisonment and be required to register as a sex offender. Full Article
AZ: Valley couple opens home to sex offenders, neighbors
MESA, Ariz. - A valley couple is opening their home to registered sex offenders and it's an idea that has many of their neighbors up in arms. Full Article