[Reuters] Conservative U.S. Justice Gorsuch again sides with liberals in criminal case
By Lawrence Hurley | June 26th, 2019 For the second time in three days, conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch on Wednesday sided with his four liberal colleagues in a 5-4 ruling in favor of a criminal defendant, on this occasion an Oklah …
Posted: June 29, 2019[SCOTUSblog] Opinion analysis: Court refuses to resurrect nondelegation doctrine
By Mila Sohoni | June 20th, 2019 The Supreme Court today refused to resurrect the nondelegation doctrine, the long-dormant principle that Congress cannot transfer its power to legislate to another branch of government. The case, Gundy v. United States, …
Posted: June 29, 2019Sex Offenders Need Not Disclose Facebook Accounts to Law Enforcement, NY Court of Appeals Rules
By Dan Clark | June 27, 2019 Persons convicted of sex offenses in New York do not have to specifically disclose to the state that they have, and use, an account on Facebook, so long as they register their email address and don’t use a fake name, the st …
Posted: June 29, 2019Detroit Free Press — Michigan lawmakers ordered to revise the Sex Offender Registry Act
May 24th, 2019 | By Aleanna Siacon A U.S. district court judge is giving Michigan lawmakers 90 days to change the state’s sex offender registry law, almost three years after it was first ruled unconstitutional by federal appeals court. U.S. District Ju …
CCRC — PA high court will again review sex offender registration
April 9, 2019 | By Aaron Marcus Two years ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shook up long-settled orthodoxy by ruling that the state’s sex offender registration law, otherwise known as SORNA (Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act) was pun …
Posted: April 10, 2019[The Appeal] Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Proves Inescapable
By Steven Yoder | March 1, 2019 It was the kind of headline guaranteed to generate clicks even over the winter holidays and amid a federal government shutdown: “Number of Sex Offenders Living in Florida Is Growing,” warned the Associated Press. In Dece …
Our cruel, counterproductive sex offender laws: Anthony Weiner is a window into what’s wrong with our system of punishment
NY Daily News | By Emily Horowitz Last week, Anthony Weiner was released from federal prison to a Bronx halfway house after serving 21 months for sending sexually-explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl. Next, like approximately 4.5 million others on p …
Posted: February 20, 2019Michigan AG Dana Nessel Does the Unthinkable: Argues the Truth about SORA
By Guy Hamilton-Smith Michigan’s Attorney General has entered the cultural and legal conflagration of how we reckon with sexual violence in our society with a remarkable (and compelling) argument: Michigan’s sex offender registries are not effective at …
Posted: February 20, 2019Editorial: Sex Offender Registry afoul of constitution
The Detroit News, January 24, 2019 Michigan lawmakers seem keen on making important reforms to the state’s criminal justice system, which should expand protections for civil liberties. Another item they should add to the list: Revamping the state’s Sex …
Posted: February 4, 2019When Stealing Legos Adds To a Lifetime of Consequences — The Appeal
By Elizabeth Weill-Greenburg Seth (not his real name) describes himself as an outcast as a child. “I was the fat kid with glasses that got picked on ever since first grade,” said Seth, now 40, who grew up in New Jersey, where he still lives. “I was alw …
Posted: December 9, 2018Failure-To-Comply Arrests Reveal Flaws In Sex Offender Registries [The Appeal]
Joshua Vaughn, August 1, 2018 — In January 2015, Franklin Barrick packed his bags and moved out of his home near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, leaving his wife behind. For most, the end of a marriage would bring divorce proceedings in civil court, but f …
Posted: August 3, 2018Expert: Crime Registries Turn People into Pariahs With ‘Very Little to Lose’ [The Appeal]
Jessica Pishko / The Appeal – On November 19, 2009, Brittany Passalacqua and her mother, Helen Buchel, were found brutally murdered, slashed multiple times with a boxcutter, in their Geneva, New York, home. Prosecutors charged John Brown, Buchel’s boyf …
Posted: July 25, 2018[Detroit Free Press] Treatment of sex offenders depends on whether they’ve challenged rules
WASHINGTON – Eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively upheld a decision saying parts of Michigan’s sex offender registry law — one of the toughest in the nation — were unconstitutional, thousands of former sex offenders who thought they’d …
Posted: June 8, 2018[The Appeal] Sex Registries as Modern-Day Witch Pyres: Why Criminal Justice Reform Advocates Need to Address the Treatment of People on the Sex Offender Registry
Perhaps the most irrefutable statement that can be made about modern day America is this: we have a penchant for putting people in cages. More than any other nation on the planet, we rely on incarceration as the fix for our social ills. America’s unpre …
Posted: June 1, 2018The Supreme Court’s Mixed Signals in Packingham
American Constitution Society Blog Post- “The Supreme Court’s Mixed Signals in Packingham” (July 10, 2017)
Judges find 2015 law unconstitutional as applied to registered sex offender
Article from Indiana Lawyer
Big Win For Sex Offenders in PA as Registration Held Punishment
Big Win For Sex Offenders in PA as Registration Held Punishment
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Ruling Could Cut Thousands From Sex Offender Registry
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Ruling Could Cut Thousands From Sex Offender Registry