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
General News Feed
TX: Under lawsuit threat, small cities loosen laws restricting sex offenders
The cities of Pottsboro, Gunter and Whitewright all repealed existing laws restricting sex offenders from schools and public parks at recent city council meetings. This decision came on the heels of a legal notice the cities received from the Texas Voices for Reason and Justice. The advocacy group’s attorney sent this notice threatening to file a legal claim against these three unless their sex...
NC: Federal Judge Enjoins Enforcement of Sex Offender Premises Restriction
Federal Judge Enjoins Enforcement of Sex Offender Premises Restriction Posted on Dec. 17, 2015, 12:51 pm by Jamie Markham • 3 comments A federal judge has permanently enjoined all North Carolina district attorneys from enforcing G.S. 14-208.18(a)(3), the law intended to prohibit certain sex offenders from being at places where minors gather for regularly scheduled educational, recreational, or social programs. Full Article
MI: Michigan Supreme Court takes sex offender list case
The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to look at the case of a man who's on the sex offender list for life, although his conviction was erased nearly 20 years ago. Full Article
International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders’.
The Senate passed HR 515 formerly known as "International Megan's Law" with another NEW title "International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders" and added a section about Passports. Full Article Related https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/515 https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/515/text
NY: Sex Offenders Drive Down Property Values, Quality of Life (updated)
One of the most highly publicized aspects of the city’s turn toward the poverty industry has been the open armed embrace given to registered sex offenders. Full Article Update Readr Response
Who is a sex offender? Lenore Skenazy
A guy you might be scared to meet, Galen Baughman, gave a talk at a TEDx event in New York City recently. TED is known for introducing new speakers with new ideas on everything from tech to society to teaching. But Baughman was the first presenter who happens to be on the registry. The sex offender registry, that is. His crime? He had sex...
TX: Why Texas’ civil commitment program was found unconstitutional
Recently the Honorable P.K Reiter made headlines by finding Chapter 841 of the Texas Health and Safety Code unconstitutional. On Monday, December 14, Judge Reiter agreed with Defense Counsel Bill Marshall’s conclusion that the involuntary commitment of Alonzo May under the recently amended law was punitive and a denial of the man’s due process rights under both Texas and U.S. Full Article
Report: Alarming abuses seen at remote California prison
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Guards at an isolated state prison have created a "culture of racism," engage in alarming use of force against inmates and have a code of silence encouraged by the union that represents most corrections officers, the California inspector general said Wednesday. The scathing report calls for management and other changes at High Desert State Prison in the northeast corner of the...
MI: U.P. School Upholds Ban – Parents on sex offender registry prohibited from school events
ENGADINE — What if you could never watch your child in a school basketball game? What if your dad has never seen you play in a school football game? Full Article
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...