By Sandy . . . NARSOL’s latest marathon NARSOL in Action telephone conference call combined three topics of high interest and urgency for persons on sexual offense registries and those advocating for them. During the first hour, we had an attorney from the ACLU of Michigan, Paul Reingold, discussing a class action lawsuit filed there. Growing out of Michigan v.…
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By NARSOL . . . Congress’s enactment of legislation permitting the State Department to mark the passports of registered citizens and notify nations about their pending travel is reprehensible. It is beneath the dignity of the United States to brand its own citizens with a mark of derision and shame, a mark that will very likely close a great many…
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By Guy Hamilton-Smith . . . On October 30th, the State Department announced that passports of people who are required to register as sex offenders because of an offense involving a minor will be marked with a “unique identifier” that will read: The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States…
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By Jacob Sullum . . . The notice, which will appear on the second-to-last page of U.S. passports, is officially known as an “endorsement,” but it is more like a badge of shame. “The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor,” it says, “and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(l).”…
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By Sandy . . . Before the passage of IML, NARSOL (at the time, RSOL) published a blog post offering a resource to information about international travel. Paul Rigney, founder of RTAG, was interested in gathering as much anecdotal material as possible from registrants about what they encountered in their travels or their attempts to travel. This post has garnered more…
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By Sandy . . . A recent press release from the office of Congressmen Chris Smith, author of the bill which became International Megan’s Law says, “One year to the date of its enactment, Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) reports that the International Megan’s Law is already having the intended effect of reducing the threat of child sex tourism.” The proof…
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By Sandy . . . International Megan’s Law is without a doubt a waste of time and money and will cause harm in lives. Just as with regular Megan’s Law, research shows that its ability to offer any actual protection to children at risk of sexual harm is a few fractions of a percent above zero. The concerns are real, and…
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Associated Press . . . A lawsuit challenging a law that requires a marker to be placed in the passports of people convicted of sex offenses against children is premature because the marker provision is not yet in effect, a federal judge said Friday in a ruling dismissing the suit. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton said it was also…
Read MoreBy now everyone knows that the motion for a preliminary injunction in the IML case has been denied by a federal court in California. The mainstream news reports the details here and here. In brief, the judge felt a ruling at this point was premature because it is not yet clear what form a passport identifier might take. In legal jargon,…
Read MoreOAKLAND, Calif. — The Latest on a new federal law that would mark the passports of some sex offenders (all times local): 1:30 p.m. 3/30/2016 An attorney challenging a new federal law that requires some sex offenders to have “unique identifiers” in their passports says the mark would wrongly imply they had engaged in child sex trafficking or child sex…
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