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
Janice's Journal
General News Feed
Sex-offender laws are ineffective and unfair, critics say
____ ____, 62, is a father, small-business owner and avid surfer. He’s also one of 105,000 people in California — and 760,000 nationally — listed as a sex offender. In accordance with federal law, his name, photograph and home address appear in a public, online offender registry. In 1979, ____, then 27, was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the...
Don’t Water Down This Law [Editorial]
Along with big-time drug dealers and terrorists, registered sex offenders may constitute the most odious group of individuals with which society must contend. But despite the disdain most people feel for them, a movement is afoot to strike down local ordinances that go beyond the limits of California law, which restricts only those sex offenders who are on parole and whose victims were under...
In defense of John Grisham
The Internet is enjoying a good piling on right now at the expense of author John Grisham. In an interview with the Telegraph, Grisham talked about over-incarceration in America. As part of that discussion, Grisham also mentioned that he thinks the laws and sentences for viewing or possessing child pornography are excessive. Cue the Internet outrage machine. Full Article
Was John Grisham Right? How Child Porn Laws Fuel Mass Incarceration
Popular author John Grisham made headlines this week for speaking out against harsh sentences for child pornography, citing the recent prosecution of a friend for downloading child porn. His friend was sentenced to three years in prison for downloading pornography that claimed to depict 16-year-old females. Predictably there was an immediate backlash, with people accusing him of sympathizing with dangerous pedophiles and even going...
John Grisham: men who watch child porn are not all paedophiles [updated]
America is wrongly jailing far too many people for viewing child pornography, the best-selling legal novelist John Grisham has told The Telegraph in a wide-ranging attack on the US judicial system and the country's sky-high prison rates. Mr Grisham, 59, argued America's judges had "gone crazy" over the past 30 years, locking up far too many people, from white collar criminals like the businesswoman...
San Bernardino County sued over controversial sex offender ordinance
SAN BERNARDINO >> A civil rights attorney fighting for the repeal or revision of laws restricting the movement of sex offenders in cities and counties across California has sued San Bernardino County, challenging its ordinance. Full Article
Baldwin Park to consider suspending sex offender restrictions
BALDWIN PARK >> The city could stop restricting where sex offenders can live and move if the council takes the city attorney’s recommendation at its Wednesday meeting. The Baldwin Park Municipal Code prevents sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any children’s facility and from loitering within 300 feet of any children’s facility. The law was enacted in December, 2006, based on a...
Australia: Northern Territory to launch online public sex offender register
Convicted sex offenders in the Northern Territory will soon have their image, physical description and whereabouts posted on a government website. Legislation announced today has been named Daniel's Law after Queensland teenager Daniel Morcombe, who was murdered in 2003 by a convicted sex offender on parole. Although several details have not been finalised, it was believed all of the information published on the website...
PA: Megan’s Law mandate unfairly punishes offenders, court rules
[Updated with Decision] Some of Pennsylvania's latest sex offender registration requirements run afoul of a constitutional ban on laws that create new penalties for people who have already paid for their crimes, the Commonwealth Court has ruled. The panel of seven Commonwealth Court judges also found, however, that requiring sex offenders to reveal their email addresses and other online aliases is not a violation...
Sex-crimes convict says registration has ruined his career, endangered his life
____ ____ lives a relatively quiet life in the San Luis Obispo County city of Grover Beach. For 35 years he’s kept out of trouble, but his one conviction in 1979 for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 continues to haunt him: He is required to register as a sex offender in California for the rest of his...
SPECIAL REPORT: Pair seeks repeal of sex-offender laws in California
A crusading civil rights attorney and a registered sex offender have partnered in a legal battle that has prompted dozens of California cities to repeal or revise what the pair believe are unconstitutional ordinances restricting the activities of sex offenders. Full Article Same Article, different publication, same publisher: Pasadena Star-News San Bernardino Sun Daily Bulletin Reaction Question: How Exactly Was Sierra Madre's Sex Offender...
UK: Even rapists should have another chance at playing football – that’s how a civilised society operates
... Unpalatable as the thought is, as much as his victim and her friends and family might be revolted by the very notion, he should be allowed to resume his playing career with Sheffield United. He has been punished for his crime once. We as a society have no right to punish him further. Full Op-Ed Piece Related: Over 100,000 sign petition to prevent...
We Need to Make It Easier for Pedophiles To Seek Help
All too often, our attention, resources and shock are focused on what happens after a crime is committed—we need to be asking how we can prevent child sex abuse. Full Op-Ed Piece
Tricks-Not-Treats: Halloween Predator Panic Laws
I remember coming home from “trick-or-treating” as a child and turning over my bag of candy to my mother for inspection. After all, one of our neighbors could have slipped rat poison in our Tootsie Rolls or razor blades in our apples. Aside from certain choice pieces missing as a result of mom’s ingestion... er, “inspection” process, my mother never found any razor blades...
Mistaking My Dad for a Predator
My late father’s occupation, and love, was teaching mobility to blind students. He was employed by the school district and taught blind, k-12 students how to move about in the community. The “classroom” consisted of busy intersections, the mall, the post office, and many other places. He had been doing the work for 35 years and had seen society change so much. Full Article
Operation Boo
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is implementing the 20th Annual “Operation Boo.” Operation Boo helps protect children from sexual predators during Halloween and its new educational component helps parents and teachers show kids how to stay away from potential sexual predators year round. Full Article
City of Carson Charged With Fraud, Breach of Contract
The City of Carson has been charged with fraud and breach of contract due to its failure to significantly revise the city's sex offender ordinance despite a settlement agreement in which the City promised to do so no later than August 24, 2014. A lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on October 1, 2014, requesting that the court require the City revise...
Making money off sex offender information
NEW BLOOMFIELD -- How much money would you pay to know if any sex offenders live in your area? Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Kids Live Safe charges its subscribers $29.97 per month, or $59.88 per year, to tell them where registered sex offenders live in relation to their houses, schools or other places they frequent. Users can set up email alerts for up to four...
NY: Judge rules on difficulty for sex offenders to live in Brooklyn
Forcing sex offenders to stay 1,000 feet away from schools, playgrounds and daycare centers if they were convicted before that state law was enacted is unconstitutional, a new Brooklyn Supreme Court ruling has found. Full Article Also see: Devine v Annucci (decision)
IA: Change to Custody Law Regarding Sex Offenders
2012 - A new law tells judges in custody cases to consider if a parent let a child be around a sex offender. The change in Iowa custody law took effect July 1, 2012. It adds to the long list of factors a judge can consider to decide what custody arrangement is in the best interest of a child. The new law allows the...