civil rights challenges, lawsuit updates, and court rulings
By Sandy . . . A New Jersey Superior Court has handed down a great decision. Two registrants had sought relief from registration under a law in that state that permits such relief. The two registrants had been denied in a lower court, and the higher court on December 7, 2018, reversed that finding, sending the case back to the…
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By Emery P. Dalesio, AP . . . North Carolina’s Supreme Court is re-evaluating whether forcing sex offenders to be perpetually tracked by GPS-linked devices, sometimes for the rest of their lives, is justified or a Constitution-violating unreasonable search. The state’s highest court next month takes up the case of repeat sex offender Torrey Grady. It comes three years after the…
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By John P . . . On June 19th, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that was read and noticed by a relatively small segment of the population. Packingham v. North Carolina overturned an oppressive state law that had made it a felony for anyone registered as a sexual offender to access social media sites…
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By Lydia Wheeler… Supreme Court justices on Tuesday grappled with how much power Congress can pass on to federal agencies in a case that could change the way Capitol Hill legislates. The justices on the eight-member court heard arguments over whether Congress crossed a line in 2006 when it passed the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act that was…
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By Larry and King Alexander, Jr.* . . . This is a rather fascinating situation because it illustrates the federalism problem seen when two different courts, one federal and one state, interpret the same state statute and come to radically different conclusions. People often mistakenly believe that the federal court determination controls because federal courts are a higher authority than state…
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Associated Press . . . North Carolina’s second-highest court says authorities can’t force a sex-offender to wear a monitoring device for decades because evidence fails to show that tracking protects the public. A divided three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that because officials presented no evidence that satellite-based monitoring is effective, it violates the U.S. Constitution’s…
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By Sophie Sherry . . . The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the state of Michigan over its handling of the state’s sex offender registry. In 2016, the 6th Circuit Court ruled that aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act, SORA, were unconstitutional. The court’s opinion specifically noted portions of the act which allowed the state to retroactively impose…
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By Larry . . . NARSOL is disappointed to report that the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued a decision affirming a lower court’s decision that will permit the Chicago Police to retroactively evict registered citizens from their homes to comply with the state’s residency restrictions. In Vasquez v. Foxx, 17-1061 (7th Cir. 2018) two registered…
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By Robin Vander Wall . . . On April 16, 2018, NARSOL’s attorney, Paul Dubbeling, represented NARSOL, NCRSOL, and two Doe plaintiffs before federal District Court Judge Loretta Biggs at a hearing to defend NARSOL v. Stein against the state of North Carolina’s Motion to Dismiss. Then on May 30, Judge Biggs entered an order seeking “a more definite statement”…
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By Paul Elias, AP . . . The leader of the successful recall of a Northern California judge for an unpopular sexual assault sentence warned that the results show women’s rights and the #MeToo movement are now a potent political force that politicians ignore at their own peril. “The broader message of this victory is that violence against women is…
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