Union County, Florida was next to pass harsh residency restrictions
Like Dominoes… Union County, Florida passed its 2500 foot Sex Offender Residency Restriction on the 15th of September. Union, which is the smallest county in the State, now has one of the harshest SORRs.
Of course, the SORR includes school bus stops, but among the other winners in this draconian ordinance is a prohibition on “traveling through” a buffer zone unless you are attending to a list of 7 exemptions. Not on the list of exemptions is stuff like shopping for groceries, going to the bank, getting a haircut, grabbing a coffee, getting gas, or going to church.
Naturally the ordinance does not require the county to paint lines or put up signs when you are entering within 2500 feet of one of these places, so it’ll be up to you to know where those 2500 foot circles are.
Let’s see which county is next!
You can read a copy of the ordinance here: Union County Ordinance 2025-04
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I think I’m going to have a yard sale to start a legal fund so I can send it to fac. This stuff is really starting to piss me off.
As i was about to be released from prison in 2000, the state said I couldn’t go home because it was within 1000 feet of a school. New judge said I could live where I want. When i moved from vero beach to Tallahassee in 2006, they again tried to say the residence was within 1,000 feet of a school, a park, AND a daycare. Yet Another judge said they couldn’t restrict me.
I don’t understand how a few clowns in a County can decide to remove the rights of individuals who have not been convicted of any new crimes. How the hell is this possible? It’s basically banishment. How can they do proximity restrictions. I can’t levitate or fly there are no force fields or barriers around things. I’m struggling with this one.
Cannot abide by if the borders are not known and what constitutes the entities that force those borders to exist.
I don’t believe that they have the authority to prevent, actual travel thru such areas. I do believe federal freedom to travel, trumps any such law as this, that a county would implement. Sounds like a major lawsuit just waiting to happen. Apparently Florida, thinks they can supercede SCOTUS.
My sentencing judge specifically said he was not restricting where I could live. They are trying to retroactively take away our constitutionally guaranteed rights, in fact they are inalienable rights, without due process. How could there have been due process when all these laws were passed long after we were in front of a judge. And collateral consequences, that’s just a way for the judges to stomach adding these extra stuff on sex offenders. I understand that judges are humans, but they are supposed to be upholding the Constitution whether or not they like the person that is in the situation they are judging. Anyone who took a plea has his consequences delineated and any law passed after that should not apply. Unless, of course, there is a clause in their plea that says and any future collateral consequences but I doubt that exists because who in their right minds would sign a plea agreement that said the state could add whatever they want later. Collateral consequences were never intended to be used in criminal law they were only intended for situations in civil law. So, basically anyone who took a plea should argue that anything that comes after their plea is not applicable because their plea spells out what their consequences are.
The judge, unfortunately, didn’t have that authority.
Jim, I’m going to stick my neck out since I don’t live in Florida and am certainly not an expert on the state’s laws. Your judge did have the authority to restrict where you could live while on probation or parole, both of which are in lieu of incarceration. Once you are off paper, no judge can restrict where you reside or travel. But we all know how this works.
The registry is not punishment for a crime to be imposed at sentencing. It is a civil regulatory measure, so the questions of criminal due process simply don’t apply equally unless SCOTUS decides otherwise. It is very much like what is happening with those immigrants who are being detained for a civil violation rather than actually being charged criminally–limited due process rights. At least SOs can’t (for now) be whisked off in the night to CECOT in El Salvador. The registry is not right, it is indeed punishment and we all need to push back in whatever ways we feel personally comfortable.