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
MA: Mass. Forced To Remove Names From Sex Offender Database
BOSTON (CBS) – They are the faces of predators, with lists of their charges on public view in most police stations, and anyone can use the state’s registry to search for sex offenders in their community. But many of those names are now being removed from the internet database due to a Supreme Judicial Court decision that will grant many of these offenders new...
TX: Appeals court overturns seven convictions for online ‘dirty talk’ to minors
AUSTIN — The state’s top criminal court on Wednesday reversed the convictions of seven men who were sentenced to prison for talking dirty to minors online. Five men from Harris County, one from Collin County and another from Montgomery County are among the first to see their convictions reversed after a 2013 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision overturned a 2005 law criminalizing sexually explicit online...
Bill allowing cities and counties to adopt stricter sex offender ordinances voted down
A bill which would have allowed cities and counties to adopt sex offender ordinances more restrictive than state laws was voted down by an Assembly committee Tuesday. Assembly Bill 201, authored by Assemblymen William Brough, Mike Gipson, and Marc Steinorth, would have given localities the ability to enact not only more stringent restrictions on where persons required to register as sex offenders can live,...
We Stopped AB 201!
Due to the efforts of registrants, family members and supporters Assembly Bill 201 was stopped today during a Public Safety Committee hearing. During a vote of its members, only 2 of 7 members voted in support of the bill while the remaining 5 members either voted "no" or abstained from voting. "We succeeded today because of letters sent and phone calls made to members...
HR 515 / IML Update from Registrant TAG
We ultimately met with six house legislative aides, mostly from the house foreign relations committee and also went to all the offices of cosponsors. We provided a copy of the talking points and a letter Janice Bellucci sent to the House Speaker. I will follow up tomorrow with an email to each of the legislative aides we had discussions with and aides with the...
California’s laws test whether sexual predators can ever be rehabilitated
At the foot of a fence around a small house in the desert, a protester cleared her throat. She wanted to scream loud enough for the man inside to hear. “Raaaaaapist!” she shouted. “Go away, rapist!” “No one in this world loves you,” her friend yelled. “You are a sexually violent predator!” The shrieks were met with silence from the white, two-bedroom home outside...
Reform the Sex-Offender Registry
In 1972, at the age of 21, Phillip Garrido had his first arrest. The charge: sexual assault of a minor. Four years later, he kidnapped and raped Katherine Callaway, a crime for which he received a 50-year sentence in the federal Leavenworth Penitentiary. During his trial, Garrido testified to masturbating while sitting outside middle schools and going on drug binges. After serving 11 years...
MA: Sex offenders set to be delisted by court ruling
More than 500 sex offenders are expected to be removed from the state’s public online registry after a controversial high court ruling that has caused a massive backlog of cases, according to officials. ... The Herald reported yesterday that a Supreme Judicial Court decision rendered last month has forced the SORB to temporarily remove sex offenders from the online database that allows the public...
Labeling sex offenders’ passports is overkill (Editorial)
Say you slept with your girlfriend when you were a senior in high school and she was a freshman. That’s enough to get you labeled a sex offender in some states. Or say you streaked across the football stadium buck naked in college, or urinated outside when you were drunk, or clicked on the photo of a naked 17-year-old. Strange as it may seem,...
NE: City Council Rejects Sex Offender Residency Restrictions
FALLS CITY – City council discussed and took action on whether or not to draft an ordinance restricting the distance a registered sex offender(s) can live to a school or a licensed daycare. Full Article
TX: Former Wise County deputy sentenced for taking nude photos of sex offenders
FORT WORTH - A former deputy with the Wise County Sheriff’s Department was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison Wednesday for taking nude photographs of sex offenders. Full Article
The yellow star, the scarlet letter and ‘International Megan’s Law’
When I was growing up, in a Jewish family in Brooklyn in the 1950s, Hitler and the Holocaust were common subjects of conversation in my household. Though at the time it all seemed like ancient history — along with the Civil War, the Black Death, the fall of Rome, and everything else that had ever happened before I was born — I realized, when...
Vote “No” to Oppose International Megan’s Law
Votes are now being taken from the public regarding H.R. 515, International Megan's Law, on a website that will report the votes to members of Congress. It is important for registered citizens, family members and supporters to cast their vote. As of the writing of this article, 59 percent of the public supports the bill and 41 percent opposes the bill. We can change that...
Registrant Travel Action Group in Washington DC to Fight for Our Right to Travel
Registrant Travel Action Group (http://registranttag.org/), the National RSOL affiliate focused on protecting the travel rights of registered citizens, is in Washington DC to pound the pavement, speak to legislators and fight for our right to travel. As reported, in recent weeks the Senate passed a bill (the International Megan's Law) that would severely impede the rights of registered citizens to travel internationally and expose...
General Comments January 2016
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2016. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Janice’s Journal: The New Year Begins with a Frightening Roar
A new year has begun and because it is an election year it has started out with a roar. A roar that should frighten us all. Despite the fact that the year is only a few days old, we are already facing two pieces of legislation that could significantly increase the punishment inflicted upon registered citizens. First, we are facing Assembly Bill (AB) 201...
TN: Tennessee becomes first state to release animal abuse registry
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On Friday, Tennessee became the first state to release an animal abuse registry. It includes the names of people convicted of having intentionally abused animals. Anyone can see the registry, pictures and where offenders live. Full Article
VA: VSP launches Sex Offender Supplemental Registry
Virginia State Police have launched a Sex Offender Supplemental Registry online for public access, granting information on cases taking place before the sex offender registry's founding. Full Article More from Virginia
CA RSOL Meeting January 16 – Los Angeles
California RSOL's first regular monthly meeting in 2016 will take place on January 16, 2016 in Los Angeles. As always, the location is the ACLU Building at 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Start time is 10 am. We will focus on current topics, including pending legislation and legal actions as well as offer an opportunity for networking with others. We welcome...
Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative
Abstract: Truth be told, we are afraid for our children and we are afraid of our children. The intersection of these disparate thoughts has produced a perfect storm. We have created increasingly harsh sex offender registration schemes to protect our children from sexual abuse. At the same time, fear of our children ensnares and punishes them under the very same laws that were designed...