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
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...
KS: Wichita school district completes installation of visitor security system
By Monday, all Wichita public schools will have the new Hall Pass security system, which scans visitors’ driver’s licenses and checks them against a sex-offender database. This summer, the Wichita school board voted to spend up to $200,000 to install scanners and related equipment at all 91 school buildings and train employees to use them. Schools have been installing the system at a rate...
Anti-Airbnb Coalition Creates Map to Find Nearby Sex Offenders in NYC
ShareBetter, the anti-Airbnb campaign in New York City, launched a tool Monday that allows short-term renters to search neighborhoods in the city for sex offenders and building code violations. Full Article
Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime (Opinion)
THINK back to your first childhood crush. Maybe it was a classmate or a friend next door. Most likely, through school and into adulthood, your affections continued to focus on others in your approximate age group. But imagine if they did not. By some estimates, 1 percent of the male population continues, long after puberty, to find themselves attracted to prepubescent children. These people...
Our criminal justice system is making it really hard for people to find jobs
Although the American economy has rebounded from the Great Recession, many people still struggle to find jobs. Politicians blame taxation, trade policies and automation. Some have even singled out the current welfare system. Often overlooked? The many punitive effects of the criminal justice system. Nearly 65 million Americans have a criminal record. This black mark carries with it potentially mandatory restrictions on jobs, housing,...
The Better Part of Valor: Amending Local Sex Offender Ordinances
A series of lawsuits against California cities has brought the issue of sex offenders in the community back to many city agendas and local public meetings. Two recent decisions by the California Court of Appeal and a case pending before the California Supreme Court effectively limit cities’ ability to enforce local ordinances regulating registered sex offenders who live in their jurisdictions. Few city officials...
NY: Judge Finds State Limits on Sex Offender Moves Illegal
A judge has found the state's 2005 restrictions on sex offender movement violate constitutional bans on retroactive punishment when applied to a man convicted of sexual abuse in 2002 and effectively banished him from many parts of Brooklyn as a result. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Lewis determined that Executive Law §259-c(14)—which forbids sentenced offenders from "knowingly entering into" publicly accessible areas within 1,000...
CITY OF COMMERCE ORDINANCE CHALLENGED IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT
A sex offender ordinance adopted by the City of Commerce has been challenged in a lawsuit filed today in federal district court on behalf of a registered sex offender (“registered citizen”). “This lawsuit was filed because the City of Commerce prohibits registered citizens from visiting the public library, parks, bus stops and commercial establishments that provide a children’s playground,” stated California RSOL president Janice...
PA: ‘Deplorable’ sex offender’s crime could be considered worse than murder, prosecutor says
With a sentence of 23 to 46 years in prison, sex offender ____ ____ will be incarcerated longer than some murderers. But in a sense, his crime is worse than murder, according to a prosecutor. ... "I say involuntary deviate sexual intercourse is worse than murder because you've got to live with it," (Assistant District Attorney Pat) Broscius said. "When you're murdered, you're dead." Full Article