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
Sex offender sues city of Grover Beach
A Grover Beach man is suing the city, claiming its restrictions limiting where registered sex offenders can live are unconstitutional. The city attorney says the city will fight the lawsuit. ... Bellucci and Lindsay filed the lawsuit against the city of Grover Beach on June 16. The city originally had until Thursday to file its official response to the suit but requested and was...
The heat is turned up (one hopes) against sex offender registry statutes
As I’ve noted a number of times here on the VC (most recently here) I’ve gotten involved over the last few years in a series of constitutional challenges to various State “sex offender registry” statutes, which typically impose a series of reporting requirements (e.g., tell your probation officer of every address change, or email address you use) and disabilities (on owning property near a school, say,...
CA RSOL Meeting August 29 in Berkeley
The last California RSOL meeting of the summer will take place in Berkeley on August 29, 2015. Please join us for networking, support and an update about CA RSOL's effort to restore the Civil Rights for those required to register pursuant to PC 290. We welcome registrants, friends, family, supporters and pertinent service providers. Media and law enforcement are not invited in an effort...
Sex Offender Registries And Calls For Reform
For more than 20 years, states have been keeping public lists of convicted sex offenders. These registries are intended to help police and communities monitor the whereabouts of nearly 800,000 pedophiles and others found guilty of sexual crimes. Many people are listed for crimes committed when they were minors and not all are egregious: Sending a lewd text or public urination, for instance, can...
VA: Devoy – Has Virginia’s sex offender registry kept us safe?
Recently, Gov. Terry McAuliffe set up an independent commission to look at the 20 years since parole was abolished and determine whether it should be revived. "It's time to review whether that makes sense," he said during a radio appearance. "Is it keeping our citizens safe? Is it a reasonable, good, cost-effective way? Are we rehabilitating folks?" he asked. "Are sentences too long for...
General Comments July 2015
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2015. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Turning Teens who Have Sex into “Sex Offenders” — The Story Continues
The front page of today’s New York Times features the case against Zach Anderson, a case you read about here three weeks ago. Zach is the 19 year old who met a young woman, 17, on “Hot or Not,” had sex with her once and now sits in jail. When he gets out next week he will spend the rest of his life on the Sex...
VA: Sex offenders held long after sentence
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Having already served their sentences, hundreds of Virginia sex offenders are held behind bars for months – some for years – while waiting to see whether they’ll be sent to a psychiatric center indefinitely, an Associated Press review has found. Full Article
MN: Sex offender treatment program needs changes
Federal Judge Donovan Frank recently handed down an opinion on a lawsuit challenging the legality of Minnesota's indefinite confinement of sex offenders after they finish their prison sentences. Full Article
Teenager’s Jailing Brings a Call to Fix Sex Offender Registries
ELKHART, Ind. — Until one day in December, Zachery Anderson was a typical 19-year-old in a small Midwestern city. He studied computer science at the local community college. He lived with his parents and two younger brothers in a sun-filled home on the St. Joseph River, where framed family photos hang from the walls and a pontoon boat is docked outside. Full Article
Reasonable People—Your Opinions Needed
Cruel and unusual punishment has no exact definition in law—a number of state constitutions describe it as punishment that’s so disproportionate to the crime committed that it shocks the conscience of a reasonable person. Our notions of it have changed over time and vary across cultures. In essence, it’s something like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s description of hard-core pornography–he couldn’t define it, he...
IN: ACLU – RFRA must let sex offenders worship at churches with schools
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed Wednesday what appears to be the first lawsuit that invokes the state's new new Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Their clients? Registered sex offenders who believe their religious freedom is being denied by another new law that bans them from attending any church located on the same property as a school. Full Article
Internet Identifier Bill to be Heard on July 14
The Senate Public Safety Committee will hear Senate Bill 448 (SB 448) on July 14. The bill, if passed, would require all registered citizens to disclose their "internet identifiers" to law enforcement within five working days. "The bill's requirement would violate the 1st Amendment rights of registered citizens," stated CA RSOL president Janice Bellucci, "because the identify of registered citizens would be revealed every...
A place to call home: Lawsuit filed against Grover Beach by a sex offender was years in the making
Grover Beach is being sued over its residency restrictions on sex-offenders, and there shouldn’t be anyone surprised about it. Officials with the city, which is one of only two in SLO County that passed restrictions on top of those required by state law, likely knew the ordinance would eventually be challenged in court, but moved forward with its creation and enforcement anyway, according to...
Janice’s Journal: Senate Bill 54 – Is the Battle Over? Maybe, Maybe Not [updated with sample letter and contact info]
The Senate Public Safety Committee conducted a hearing on June 30 during which it considered Senate Bill 54 (SB 54). The bill, if passed, would (1) overturn a recent CA Supreme Court decision that declared blanket residency restrictions for registered citizens on parole to be unconstitutional and (2) prevent most registered citizens from obtaining judicial relief from those restrictions. The bill would not, as...
Bill To Revive Restrictions On Sex Offender Housing Stalls
SACRAMENTO (AP) — A bill seeking to revive broad restrictions on where sex offenders can live in California has stalled in a state Senate committee. Republican Sen. Sharon Runner of Lancaster introduced SB54 after the state Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting all sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools or parks goes too far. State parole officers now impose the restriction only...
Australia: Think twice before demanding harsher sentences for child sex offenders
How should we sentence sexual fiends, monsters and perverts? By sentencing them to prison for as long as possible – preferably never letting them free – would seem to be the popular view, if some media reports are to be believed. This group of offenders is particularly demonised due to fears they are a highly dangerous, recidivist and predatory class of criminals. Full Op-Ed Piece
DE: ____ charged for refusing polygraph, therapy
When former state Senate hopeful ____ ____ testified at his child rape trial last year, he swore he did not force a youngster to repeatedly have sex with him more than a quarter-century ago. The trial ended in a hung jury. When he pleaded “no contest” in March to two counts of unlawful sexual contact and was put on probation, ____ didn’t admit to...
Courts are reconsidering residency restrictions for sex offenders
In 2006, California voters passed “Jessica’s Law,” a ballot initiative that prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. In 2011, crime analyst Julie Wartell of the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office analyzed how much housing was left for those offenders. Consulting land-use files, she concluded that just 0.7 percent of multifamily parcels in the county were...
Married to a sex offender
Traumatized by their husband’s crimes and ostracized by friends and family “secondary victims” struggle to cope with shattered lives ... Full Article