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: FAC Sues Seminole County, Florida over Sex Offender Exclusion Zones Ordinance
The Florida Action Committee (FAC) has sued Seminole County and its Sheriff over the County’s proximity ordinance, which prohibits certain registered sexual offenders and predators from traveling through or being present within “exclusion zones” that encompass most of the County. The problem is that the zones are so broad and so vague that law abiding registered citizens cannot comply with the ordinance. Full Article
LA: Lake Charles man arrested after not paying state sex offender fee
LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) -A Lake Charles man was arrested after he didn't pay the required $60 state sex offender fee authorities said. Lake Charles police detectives arrested ____ ____ ____. Wednesday and booked him into the Calcasieu Correctional Center, according to Deputy Chief Mark Kraus. He is charged with failure to register/notify as a sex offender — failure to pay fee. His bail is...
NJ: Kyleigh’s Law – Should we protect NJ teens from learners permit decals?
Are the red decals young drivers have to put on their license plates an invitation to potential sex offenders? Are they advertising that there’s probably a teenager in the car? Some people think so, while others say they’re a valuable tool for law enforcement. Full Article
Interpol’s Transnational Policing By “Red Notice” and “Diffusions”: Procedural Standards, Systemic Abuses, and Reforms Necessary to Assure Fairness and Integrity
This article is about Interpol’s use of Red Notices and Diffusions; it describes problems with the system and urges reforms. As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy initiatives. Any expressions of opinion are those of the author. Generally, the Federalist Society refrains from publishing pieces that advocate for or against particular policies. When we do so, as...
Lenore Skenazy: Sex offender or boy next door?
This should tell you something about how meaningless and capricious the "sex offender" label is: Zach Anderson, the Elkhart, Indiana, 19-year-old labeled a sex offender for having consensual sex with a girl who said she was 17 (but turned out to be 14), has had his sentence vacated. That means it's as if his case had never been tried. It will be heard anew...
State Courts Strike Down Overbroad Residence Restrictions for People Convicted of Sex Offenses
After two decades of imposing increasingly harsh residence restrictions on people convicted of sex offenses, several key states are rejecting blanket restrictions. Full Article
MD: Boy Faces Assault Charges For Kiss Made On A Dare
PIKESVILLE, Md. (WBFF) -- Baltimore County Police and Baltimore County school officials responded to a report of assault involving two eighth-grade students at Pikesville Middle School on Wednesday. School officials took a report regarding a 13-year-old boy who kissed a 14-year-old girl during school hours. The unwanted kiss was allegedly the result of a dare made by students. Full Article
Public Safety Committee Chairman Stops SB 448
Public Safety Committee Chairman Bill Quirk stopped Senate Bill 448 from being passed in the Assembly yesterday when he refused to conduct a hearing on that bill. He took that action despite a Rules Committee ruling that suspended both an Assembly rule and the State Constitution. "Chairman Quirk is to be commended for his courage and his integrity," stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci. ...
Public Safety Committee to Hear SB 448 Today (Friday, September 11 – 11:30 am)
The Assembly Public Safety Committee will conduct a hearing today, at 11:30 am, regarding SB 448 which would require some registered citizens to disclose their internet identifiers. The hearing is the result of a decision by the Rules Committee. At this time, the Committee is not accepting verbal comments regarding the bill but written comments may be sent by E-mail to committee staffer Martin...
TX: No Place to Go, Forever, Texas Offender Says
HOUSTON (CN) - A Pasadena, Texas law that bans sex offenders from living "within 1,000 feet ... of any neighborhood" is unconstitutional, a man who completed serving his sentence 8 years ago claims in court. Israel Escobar sued the city of Pasadena on Wednesday in Federal Court. Pasadena, pop. 133,000, part of greater Houston, is a Hispanic-majority city known for its refineries and strawberry...
Ordinance would offer rewards for sex offender apprehension
LOS ANGELES – A proposed ordinance introduced Tuesday would allow the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to offer rewards of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the apprehension of sex offenders who abscond while on parole or probation. Full Article
Teens Who Take Nude Photos Of Themselves Can Still Be Treated As Sex Offenders
WASHINGTON -- A teenage boy in North Carolina might have to register as a sex offender if he's convicted of keeping nude photos he took of himself on his phone, as well as a picture of his girlfriend. His case has drawn national scrutiny, but North Carolina's controversial law isn't unique. In many states, prosecutors can technically slam teenagers who snap naked selfies with child porn-related charges...
CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY JANICE M. BELLUCCI NAMED TO TOP 100 LAWYERS IN CALIFORNIA
The Daily Journal newspaper will recognize civil rights champion Janice M. Bellucci as one of their prestigious “Top 100” most influential attorneys in California at on September 9, 2015. The editors annually recognize elite lawyers whose work has the greatest impact on the legal industry and modern society. Candidates are chosen from thousands of submissions every year. The Daily Journal profile acknowledged Bellucci’s extensive...
Janice’s Journal: The Tipping Point May Be Near
Today the New York Times published an editorial, “The Pointless Banishment of Sex Offenders”, which questions the adoption by some states, counties and cities of residency restrictions which prohibit where a registered citizen may live. The editorial notes that such restrictions have resulted in sending “tens of thousands of people to the fringes of society, forcing them to live in motels, out of cars...
GROVER BEACH REPEALS RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS FOLLOWING LAWSUIT CHALLENGE
The City Council of Grover Beach, in a vote of 5 to 0, voted on September 8 to repeal a city ordinance that prohibited California sex offenders (“registrants”) from living within 2,000 feet of any school, park, or day care center. The action follows a lawsuit filed on June 17 by California Reform Sex Offender Laws President and attorney Janice Bellucci on behalf of...
EDITORIAL The Pointless Banishment of Sex Offenders (Editorial)
It’s a chilling image: the sex predator skulking in the shadows of a swing set, waiting to snatch a vulnerable child. Over the past two decades, that scenario has led to a wave of laws around the country restricting where people convicted of sex offenses may live — in many cases, no closer than 2,500 feet from schools, playgrounds, parks or other areas where...
MD: Study of Balto. Co. – Fewer sex offenses reported in neighborhoods with more registered sex offenders
Amid a growing national debate over sex offender registries, researchers who studied years of crime data from Baltimore County have released a new finding: Neighborhoods with more registered sex offenders experienced fewer reported sex offenses. The researchers from Princeton University and the University of Michigan, who chose Baltimore County because it was the first place they found where they could get all the data...
AL: Sex offender statutes turn productive citizens into homeless pariahs
The Constitution’s ex post facto clause prohibits passing a law that retroactively increases the punishment for a criminal act that an offender committed before the law was passed. But in an ingenious 2003 Supreme Court ruling, a 6-3 conservative majority held that retroactive placement on a state sex offender registry–being put on a registry that was created after an offender committed his crime–doesn’t violate...
Kenya: Sex offenders’ register to help curb the vice
The catalogue of heartbreaking reports on defilement that continue to pour in from across the counties make for depressing reading. ...It’s time Parliament seriously considered establishing a sex offenders registry for all accused and convicted sex offenders to brand the accusers who currently easily get away with the crime. Full Opinion Piece
NC: Teen Boy Will Be Charged As Adult For Having Naked Pics of a Minor: Himself
A North Carolina 17-year-old caught in a sexting scandal faces charges of sexually exploiting a minor that could land him in jail for up to 10 years, since the law considers him an adult. But one of the minors he supposedly exploited is himself—which raises an obvious question: how can a teen be old enough to face adult felony charges, but not old enough...