Lawsuit challenges Tennessee sex offender legislation
Three convicted sex offenders have filed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee legislation that would make it a felony for them to live with their children.
The Tennessean reports Judge William Campbell Jr. granted a temporary restraining order Friday. A hearing on the request for an injunction is July 11. The legislation is set to become law July 1.
Under the law, convicted sex offenders could be subject to arrest if they’re alone with, spend the night with, or live with their own child.
The lawsuit refers to the plaintiffs as John Doe 1 through 3. Each has completed punishment and treatment following crimes involving victims under 12.
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I can understand the anger at the trashing of our Constitution by an ignorant and biased set of judges and lawmakers. I hope common sense prevails before it is too late.
I read the order and this is a Judge who rules by the law, not his politics nor feelings. I feel confident the defendants will prevail.
Our courts are overrun with jurists who do not enforce the constitution as written (this is easier than changing it) and a citizenship who do not understand the dangers associated with rights being limited or taken away because it does not affect their lives and it happens to people they despise.
I am sooooooo very angry!!!!
These people are going to tear little children away from their daddies when their daddies have COMPLETELY and ABSOLUTELY paid their debt to society!
These are FREE citizens with absolutely NO debt or obligation to the government whatsoever!! (IT was paid IN FULL!!)
These are law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of The USA and Tennessee!!
By God! There needs to be a war against this tyranny!!!
I know you may think my anger is counter-productive. Yes, you are right in many ways…
But, BY GOD!!!!….
THIS IS TYRANNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paid There Debt To Society?? A person thatâs been Sexually Molested lives with it the rest of there life. There is No limit on how they are having to deal with the ignorance of another person taking something from them in a violent manner!
Molestation victims endure a lifetime of punishment, when they have people like you persuading them that they are forever doomed and there is no hope for recovery. In fact, people like you create new child victims by advocating for the separation of children from their families, as the state of TN attempted to do here (see above) and which you appear to support.
Face it, David: you donât actually care that much about the welfare of children, do you? Instead you are looking to convince yourself that you are moral than others. Reality check: youâre not.
Since you did not mention the multitude of other crimes that require registration, I take it that you at least have enough sense to support the rehabilitation of THOSE registrants.
FAC, thank you for posting Davidâs thoughts. That helps people like me expose the hypocrisy of David and millions just like him.
Right on Jacob! Instead of letting the Victim and the accused both heal they both are drag through the mud for the local news’ entertainment.
Well said, Jacob.
Tell that to my daughter. She has come to learn that forgiveness is the great healer. Today we get along just fine and concentrate on rebuilding our family. She even told me that she has no fear of my taking her daughter places without her accompaniment. She knows what happened 20 years ago, knows why it happened, and knows that I have paid a dear price to attain restoration as her father and as a grandfather. Playing the lifetime ‘victim card’ is a ticket to nowhere. Being a proponent of forgiveness will do so much more to heal families and victims.
Yes, good response. I do think that MOST people who love the “victim for life” stance have that mostly so they can feel better just about themselves. And so many of them do things simply because it is a current popular thing to be doing. For whatever it is worth, but I find it interesting at least, I have found that most people who think like this truly are not smart. I believe that is the case.
I was molested many, many times as a child. It was not violent. It was not right but I can’t say that it even bothered me that much. I wasn’t even angry about it in high school or college. Certainly doesn’t negatively affect me today. There are even photos and video of it, probably circulating around somewhere. My federal government tells me that I’m a victim today and that I’m harmed every time someone sees that. They say that I should be notified of every time that someone looks at it! And even be compensated by the people. Pretty sure they want me to be a victim for life. It does give them jobs and gives their lives purpose, I guess.
Whatever. I realize that everyone handles being a crime victim in different ways. It didn’t affect me long but it probably does affect some people for a long time. That doesn’t magically make Registries useful or effective.
FAC can obviously do whatever they like, but I personally wouldn’t post things from “people” like “David”. It doesn’t really do anything useful. If you want to see comments like that, you can go to thousands of more “public” websites, groups, whatever, and read and respond to thousands of them. I just feel like for advocacy groups like FAC that it would be a lot better if they just focused on positivity, reality, and kept negative liars away. They can lie elsewhere.
Dear David:
I am required to register in Florida as a sexual offender for life because, when I was 25 years old (I am now 47), I briefly had consensual sexual activity with a 17 year-old male. I have not been arrested for any offense before or since. The police eventually sent the case to the state attorney’s office because his mother couldn’t accept that her son was gay and somehow, even though he was 17 at the time, I must have tricked him into it (which is not what happened). The case was resolved when he was 19 and he never wanted it to be prosecuted (only his mother did). I was sentenced to probation, which was terminated early. My offense involved no violence or threat of violence whatsoever. Do your comments apply equally to me and others like me? If so, what is your rationale for that?
David. A person that has been sexually molested does have to live with that the rest of their lives-that is true.
However, almost all have been able to recover, marry, or not marry, and lead productive, normal lives, and are generally happy.
It is a different ball game with sex offenders.
They are punished for the rest of their lives beyond the sentence they served, even long after their victim recovered and is living a normal life or close to normal life.
Sex offenders are NOT allowed to live a normal, productive life after they have completed their sentence regardless of the state of their victim.
They are hated, scorned, shunned, banished, un-forgiven, un-redeemable, etc. by society for the rest of their lives-they are in essence punished twice for the same crime. Once by the Penal Institution, and then again by society for the rest of their lives.
No one should have to be punished for the same crime twice-no one!
Also, the most horrible punishment isn’t in prison…..it’s out here, and sometimes it’s repeatedly traumatic due to vandalism, the ongoing abolishment from public places like gyms, amusement parks, libraries, etc. and the never-ending ‘hate mail’ from people who never even were sexually abused to begin with, but just joining in with the Status Quo beliefs of others.
Then there’s the absolutely useless new laws that further restrict them which sends a wrong signal to the public that they are beyond help and to be outcasts of society.
A victim of molestation can recover and lead a normal or very close to normal life.
A sex offender can NOT. They are ruthlessly hated and punished by society the rest of their lives even after their sentence is completed and IT IS NOT RIGHT!!!!
It seems as though there is NO amount of good a sex offender can do to redeem themself back to society, even if they were to save a family from a house fire, or land a plane full of people because the pilot had a heart attack-someone out there would say ‘Yeah, but did you know they are a sex offender?’
Hey David – get over it. Yes, they have paid their debt to society! You might not agree but so what – the law says they have so until you are a judge you will need to deal with it.
Sorry but a murderer can do their time and move on – lets see – a dead person will never recover from it…and yet – people like YOU foolishly thing that one life event is worse than ending a life!
What kind of delusional monster are you?
This goes back to the old saying ” Give someone an inch, they will take a foot”. This started with a simple registration back in 1997 and has now ballooned to something out of a science fiction movie. Soon they will require all registered offenders to wear GPS monitoring for life even off of all paperwork. Don’t believe it? Some places already require it for getting out of prison even if their sentence is complete. There seems to be no end to the lawmakers ability to push the limits on what they can do to us. For God’s sake some of us have charges that go back 3 decades and have never been arrested before or since and yet they wish most of us dead or shipped off to an island. That is why they do not want us to vote.
Yes, your dystopian prediction can easily come true. It is obviously genocide and torture. This represents the psychosis of our ruling classes about sexuality. The real research has already been done and does not support them.
But expressing anger on the internet and even filing petitions will not make a change, since playing the legal game only legitimizes the sex fascists in way.
You may also be aware that some posters on these sites are paid agents of the people who torment you, posting seemingly sympathetic comments in order to draw off and defuse your anger. Don’t be fooled.
There is a way to deal with this insanity and you know what it is.
Paid agents posting on FACâs site?
I previously wrote that Tennessee faces a crisis that rivals anything weâre experiencing in Florida. And yet now, unbelievably, someone has me defending this awful law, and the registry, by comparing it to genocide and torture and labelling its proponents âsex fascistsâ and âpsychotic about sexuality.â
The sponsors of this law believe they are protecting children from harm. We agree on that objective. They just happen to be completely wrong. And ask anybody whoâs been subjected to ACTUAL torture or genocide, whether theyâd rather simply be on a sex registry. Big YES. To suggest otherwise would cheapen the definitions of torture and genocide. More importantly, the more we make such arguments, the less we persuade, and the more followers we lose. We LOSE.
The way to deal with this insanity is to educate, legislate, and litigate (and the last of these has resulted in a timely scathing temporary restraining order, of which we should be proud). If someone has another way in mind, Iâm not sure I want to know what it is.
Well said, Jacob. While I understand the frustration and the need to vent anger, such diatribes only cheapen the real argument and reduce our credibility.
Veritas.
“Paid agents posting on FACâs site?”
Exactly. This technique was first mentioned a couple of years ago with reference to Putin’s use of social media. If Putin is doing it or even if Western media only think he is, then we can be sure Western so-called intelligence and so called law enforcement agencies are doing it. It is akin to grey propaganda and disinformation.
“If someone has another way in mind, Iâm not sure I want to know what it is.If someone has another way in mind, Iâm not sure I want to know what it is.”
Then you have no business being here. Your suggestions “educate, legislate, and litigate” have done absolutely nothing, partly because the people most affected by this GENOCIDE and TORTURE, have not chosen to use them even to the extent they could have. Where is that systematic organized persistent media campaign to ….what was the word you used?– educate. Somehow I don’t find.
Of course your methods worked to block the initial implementation of the registries? No. Then of course your methods were successful in preventing minors from being put on the registries for harmless sexting? No. But of course your methds of education, legislation, and litigation completely stopped International Megan’s Law IN ITS TRACKS? No again.
Where are the the sex offender legal defense funds? Have you organized one yet? Have you figured out how to fund it?
Have you organized voting blocs of registrants? Have to organized boycotts of all countries with registries?
Until I hear some yes answers, and see some real results from you except for ONE RESTRAINING ORDER (give me a break) I am going to call it what it is: A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, TORTURE, GENOCIDE.
Ummmm… OK…
FAC administers multiple legal challenge funds. We just need to keep funding them.
Obviously this monthâs temporary restraining order is not the first court order ever to be favorable towards persons on the registry. Itâs just the one thatâs pertinent to this particular discussion.
“Education, Legislation, Litigation” was a main speaking point at the last NARSOL convention in Houston. It was presented by a lawyer who has been very successful in North Carolina in his fight to get justice for registered citizens. It is a process that is needed to slowly but surely change the thinking and attitudes of those who have for years been ‘trained’ to think negatively of humans who have committed a sex offense. Living a squeaky clean lifestyle, contributing positively at every opportunity to your community, and ‘preaching’ constantly about the value of every human life…if necessary use words. We must be dedicated. It’s not easy but the future of our families and others depend on it. Be ready to ‘fight’ evil with good.
Hiring lawyers to fight our battles for us is one way but not the only or the best way. We must be the front line in our struggle.
What a public prosecutor fears most is that a defendant will have a private attorney, which means he can lose the case and his resume will look bad.
Ask people who have been through the system if the police or some pre-trial LEO official asked the suspect what he did for a living. This is the key question and LEO officials are told by the DA to ask it before trial.
The police or other officials will ask it so fast or seeminly casually, or slip into a form, that the suspect may not spot it.
It’s a shame that such lawsuits must take place in today’s society. Such laws only become laws because of the ignorance of many of the legislators and those ‘bottom feeders’ who earn a living trying to convince an uneducated society that once someone commits a sex offense that person is forever incorrigible and will always be a threat.
I suppose that is good for their business, but not for truth and justice.
If you read a copy of Judge Campbellâs order, I think you will be impressed, as I was.
In short, when faced with a law separating registrants from their children, Judge Campbell, at least temporarily, wasnât having it.
Judge Campbell is a Trump appointee, for what itâs worth, and his order led off with an Originalist argument from The Federalist Papers!
With luck, this case will result in good persuasive authority for our circuit, which includes Alabama which has long had such a ban (and from which some of the TN registrant families had been escaping).
Please share the order
https://www.scribd.com/document/414907921/10-Temporary-Restraining-Order
I bought three documents on PACER and they are available in the RECAP archive.
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/
Enter 3:19âcvâ00532 into the “Docket Number” box
Click on “Select Jurisdictions”
Click on “Clear All” at the top
Select the “FEDERAL DISTRICT” tab
Check the box for “M.D. Tennessee” then click “Apply”
Click the “Search” button
Click on the case name when it appears
Documents 10, 11, 12 are available for free in PDF form
Sorry, easier to just supply the link. Doh!
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15843801/john-does-1-3-v-lee/