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
Some Ankle Bracelet Alarms Go Unchecked
Three decades after they were introduced as a crime-fighting tool, electronic ankle bracelets used to track an offender's whereabouts have proliferated so much that officials are struggling to handle an avalanche of monitoring alerts that are often nothing more sinister than a dead battery, lost satellite contact or someone arriving home late from work. Amid all that white noise, alarms are going unchecked, sometimes...
Opinion: Sex Is Different, Under The Law
By Norm Pattis - I've been practicing law just long enough to know that I will never make sense of it all. It's not that I am stupid, although my shortcomings are certainly an issue. The larger truth is that the law is irrational. It bumps, grinds and gyrates in ways that simply make no sense. This is especially true in criminal cases alleging sexual misconduct....
SC: In wake of murders, calls for sex offender registry to go private
GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) - At its heart, law enforcement agencies across the country say that the sex offender registry is a great resource when used. For example, when people are moving into a neighborhood, or perhaps if they have questions about a neighbor. "The sex offender registry is a tool, and it's a tool for both law enforcement and the general public," said Lt....
W.A.R. Calls out Governor Nikki Haley, Nancy Grace, Dr. Drew, Anderson Cooper and Other News Media
Women Against Registry- Recently, this country has gone through months of listening to stories about George Zimmerman and the murder of a slain man and his scorned mistress, Jodi Arias . Where is the news coverage of the brutal stabbing murders of the Parkers? Why aren’t the perpetrators faces who forced their way in to Charles and Gretchen Parker’s home, not all over the air...
Sheriff: SC killer randomly targeted sex offender
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man targeted a sex offender at random, killed him and his wife and later told deputies he planned to kill others on the state's sex registry, authorities said Wednesday. Jeremy Moody and his wife, Christine, were arrested and charged with murder, Union County Sheriff David Taylor said. Jeremy Moody confessed to the crime and told investigators they...
IN: Facebook Sex Offenders Ban Ruled Unconstitutional By Indiana Court
INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana law that bans registered sex offenders from using Facebook and other social networking sites that can be accessed by children is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Chicago overturned a federal judge's decision upholding the law, saying the state was justified in trying to protect children but that the "blanket ban" went...
OK: Experts say Okla. sex offender registry is flawed
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A system for categorizing sex offenders that experts describe as flawed is causing local police departments and state prison workers in Oklahoma to spend time and money monitoring thousands of sex offenders who pose little risk to the public. When the federal government imposed requirements on states in 2006 to create a three-tiered system for ranking sex offenders, Oklahoma lawmakers decided...
KS: Kansas appealing in sex offender registry ruling
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will appeal a state district court judge's decision that orders a child molester's name to be removed from its offender registry after finding the registration laws violate the U.S. Constitution, the state's top prosecutor said Thursday. At issue is Tuesday's decision in which Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks found that Kansas law ostracizes offenders and requires them to remain...
CA RSOL Challenges El Dorado County Ordinance
California Reform Sex Offender Laws (CA RSOL) filed a lawsuit today challenging the El Dorado County ordinance that prohibits all registrants from entering the county's parks, schools and other areas where children congregate. The lawsuit requests that the court declare that the ordinance is unconstitutional and prohibit the county from enforcing that ordinance. "It is important to stop the El Dorado County ordinance as...
Hofsheier, 311.11 and Equal Protection
From 2006: Hofsheier Decision (Equal Protection) From 2012: Case that said 311.11a cases weren't subject to the Hofsheier Motion because there is no violation of the Equal Protection doctrine
Petition: Albany Times Union newspaper and Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann: Remove addresses of family members of sex offenders
It is against Pinterest's terms of use to post personal information of another person - yet they are blatantly ignoring this policy by ignoring multiple reports of the four Pinterest boards owned by the Albany Times Union, which post the photographs and personal information of people on the registry and by proxy, their family members and children. There is no evidence to suggest this...
KS: Kansas judge finds offender registry ‘punitive’
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge has ordered law enforcement agencies to remove a man's name from the state's offender registry, saying an amended law ostracizes offenders and requires them to remain registered longer than necessary. Tuesday's decision by Shawnee County Judge Larry Hendricks addressed only the case of the man who sued to end his registering requirement, but it could extend to others in his...
Orange County Ordinance Legal Battle Continues
The Court of Appeal will hear oral argument in the Hugo Godinez case on July 22 in Santa Ana. At issue in that case is whether the Orange County ordinance which prohibited all sex offenders from entering public places such as parks, beaches and hiking trails is preempted by the state constitution. The court's decision is expected within 30 days. The Orange County ordinance,...
RI: Assembly approves ‘ban the box’ legislation
STATE HOUSE – The General Assembly has approved legislation that will prohibit prospective employers for including questions on job applications regarding arrests, charges or criminal convictions.The legislation provides exceptions to that rule in certain cases: if a federal or state law or regulation creates a mandatory or presumptive disqualification based on a person’s conviction of one or more specified criminal offenses, or if a...
“Sexting”: From bad judgment to a registered sex offender
The technological phenomenon of “sexting” has seen such a dramatic increase in popularity that it is now defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary: “the sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cell phone.” Moreover, if you ask a high school student to describe sexting, you may be surprised to hear it is a social norm. In a 2009 survey conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent...
RSOL Conference: CONFERENCE DISCOUNTS END JULY 31
Discounts for the national RSOL conference, including registration and hotel, will end on July 31. In order to take advantage of those discounts, please register for the conference and hotel no later than that date. After July 31, the conference rate will increase from $90 to $100 and the hotel rate will increase from $89 to $130 per night. It's easy to register online at www.nationalrsol.org....
OR: Lawmakers pass univ. autonomy, tiered sex offender system bills
Lawmakers rushed to approve the final pieces of a two-year budget and leave Salem after 155 days — five shy of the constitutional deadline to finish their work.One of their final acts was passing an $800 million bonding package to fund construction projects around the state, including a 174-bed psychiatric hospital in Junction City. Some Republican legislators criticized the project because of the high...
KS: Sex offender who didn’t register gets 22-plus years
Defense attorney David McDonald had no problem with his client being required to register every three months with the sheriff's office as a violent offender. However, the recent sentence that client ___ ____ ____, 33, received — 22 years and eight months tied to two Shawnee County cases for failing to register as an offender — is excessive, McDonald said. No one objects to...
Knowing the Numbers: How Bad Sex-Offender Data Could Cause More Harm
Guest Columnist Jill Levenson of Lynn University criticizes the reliance of the Supreme Court and others on inaccurate sex offender data... In the US Supreme Court's recent decision upholding sex offender registration requirements (SORNA) under the Adam Walsh Act [PDF], the Court's opinion [PDF] included the following statement: "SORNA's general changes were designed to make more uniform what had remained "a patchwork of federal and 50 individual state registration systems ... with loopholes and...
Scapegoats and Shunning (2006)
Progressives in America are rightly concerned about increasing signs of fascism in this country, such as a so-called war on terrorism thatallows massive invasion of privacy and wholesale imprisonment without charge; such as state manufacture of propaganda for its ownpeople; such as the assertion that anyone who challenges government policies on these matters is a traitor; such as a "great leader" who puts himself...