News & Updates

As promised, there is good news to report this week. To resolve the Statute of Limitations issue that caused Does v. Swearingen to be dismissed, Doe v. Swearingen II was filed today with a plaintiff who has no Statute of Limitation Issue. The Ex Post Facto Plus Challenge moves forward! The new complaint was filed in the Northern District of

The City of West Covina, California’s city council decided to repeal its Sex Offender Residency Restriction (SORR) rather than defend a losing lawsuit. The suit, brought last year by the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) challenged the law as unconstitutional – a fact the California Supreme Court had already decided previously and a fact that many other cities

We’ve gotten reports from individuals that US Marshals (not just local police, but a federal law enforcement officer) has come by people’s homes to perform the address verification. The latest report has come to us from Brevard County. Have any of you experienced this? Other than verifying your identity, what else have they done or asked?  

The following is an important lesson for anybody on probation: A criminal case based on a sex offender’s statements in a treatment program highlights the state program’s murky line between therapeutic and investigative purposes. The Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in the case of a man who claims sex-offense confessions made to his probation officer as part of a

In an order issued yesterday (copied below) the judge denied plaintiff’s request to amend the complaint, stating that “they may do so in a new action.” So that’s what’s going to happen. A new action will be filed. Since the old action was not heard on the merits but was dismissed because the Plaintiffs were barred by the statute of

A case considering whether New Zealand’s “Public Protection Order” detention (which is their equivalent to Civil Commitment) is double-punishment for a past crime is being considered by the Court of Appeal. Under that law, hundreds of people, mostly people convicted of a sex offense, were held for years after their sentence ended because they were believed to be at high