Michigan State Police Begins Removing Sex Offenders from Registry to Comply with Michigan Supreme Court Order
“On September 9, 2026, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the 2021 Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) amendments cannot be used to retroactively extend the registration requirements of anyone who committed their relevant crime prior to July 1, 2011, because doing so would be unconstitutional,” said Col. James F. Grady II, director of the Michigan State Police (MSP). “The MSP did not make this change to the law. However, the department maintains the database, is required to comply with the Court’s order and is taking the necessary steps to implement the ruling. Any concerns about or efforts to change the law should be directed to the state Legislature.”
At the time of the order, approximately 43,000 offenders were actively registered or required to be registered. As of Friday, September 11, the MSP has removed more than 20,000 offenders.
Discover more from Florida Action Committee (FAC)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Remember, this isn’t the first ball drop from the Michigan Supreme Court. People v Kardasz dropped 2021 SORA is punishment in Dec 2025. And that a violation of Article 1 Section 16. Cruel or Unusual Punishment. Florida uses the US 8th amendment cruel and Unusual punishment. Its a higher bar in Florida. And its closed because Florida Supreme Court is aligned to Smith v Doe that any Florida SORA are not punishment and therefore constitutional. However, 11th Circuit Federal Court in Florida has an opening and that FAC v Glass.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/crime/2026/09/15/michigan-supreme-court-ruling-removes-20k-from-sex-offender-registry/91748562007/
At issue are changes state lawmakers made to the Sex Offender Registry Act, increasing the amount of time some offenders remain on the list and imposed other requirements on them.
“The legislature changed the registry really substantially and did that retroactively,” said Miriam Aukerman, director of strategic litigation for the ACLU of Michigan. “It made it much more punitive. It extended many people to lifetime registration.”
–Based on this it sounds more similar to what happened in Ohio, where many people were bumped up by the change oin the law but the state supreme court ruled you can’t just extend registry time because it is punishment. Maybe FAC can reach out to Miriam Aukerman and get her take on how this applies before people start thinking we can just move to Michigan and get off the registry because it sounds like it doesn’t apply to everyone who was forced to register before 2011.
Derek:
You know I follow what’s happening in Michigan closely. The Michigan State Police is already removing people whose convictions occurred out of state.
True. If you have more than one sex offense, you stay on the registry. While and would assume it means if the second offense was committed after July 1 2011, it is not made clear. It simply says if a person is subsequently convicted of a second sex offense.
Eddie Lee Smith, the defendant-appellant who prevailed in the Michigan supreme court case, had committed the crimes for which he had been required to register in 1995 and 2010.