A judge has refused to dismiss a Chancery Court lawsuit challenging a state law that requires certain sex offenders on probation to wear an ankle GPS monitor.

The suit, filed in May by the American Civil Liberties Union, claims that the GPS monitoring law, enacted in 2007, is unconstitutional because it is being applied to those convicted of crimes that happened before 2007.

The law requires certain high-risk sex offenders, categorized as Tier III, wear and pay for GPS monitors.

Vice Chancellor Donald F. Parsons, Jr. ruled Tuesday that the suit against Department of Correction Commissioner Robert Coupe can proceed.

The judge rejected the Department of Correction’s argument that the case belonged in Superior Court, rather than Chancery Court.

He also rejected the argument that the suit could usurp the Superior Court’s authority to enforce Delaware’s laws or open a floodgate for other criminal defendants to seek relief from the Department of Correction.

“This case does not threaten to disrupt that balance,” Parsons wrote. “It is not a criminal action.”

The suit is being brought on behalf of three sex offenders who were convicted of crimes before 2007.

 

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