Weekly Updates

(Weekly Update #160) Dear Members and Advocates: This past weekend we celebrated Independence Day, commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States. The holiday celebrates this nation’s breaking free of the British on July 4, 1776, who they felt were oppressive and unjust. So what were some of these things the colonists were complaining about? Within the Declaration of

(Weekly Update #158) Dear Members and Advocates, Someone just posted something great on our website. He wrote, “well to show there may be hope, Bill Cosby just had his conviction overturned”. I don’t mean to imply this comment is great because of the overturned conviction. In fact, if someone was actually guilty and  evaded justice, the news is certainly not

(Weekly Update #157) Dear Members and Advocates, We’ve all heard the phrase “every parent’s worst nightmare” in the context of a sex offender. It usually conjures the image of an abduction and sexual assault or murder. But for every parent who happens to be required to register as a sex offender, our “parent’s worst nightmare” is that one day, some

(Weekly Update #156) Dear Members and Advocates, A couple of developments took place in both “Ex Post Facto Plus I” and “Ex Post Facto Plus II”  cases this past week. The government filed their responsive pleadings in both. In the case of EPF I, which is pending in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal, the government filed their answer brief

(Weekly Update #155) Dear Members and Advocates, For this week’s update we’re going to take a trip back in time. We make this trip because the Supreme Court of the State of South Carolina found that their registry, which requires registration for life without any judicial review, is unconstitutional. A huge win for the people in South Carolina but a

Weekly Update #152 Dear Members and Advocates, You know a scenario has played out far too often when a Federal Appellate Court decision begins with the words, “This is another of those cases…” Before a case gets to a Circuit Court of Appeals it had to have gone through the District Court, and according to Pew Research, 90% of federal

Weekly Update #151 Dear Members and Advocates, I felt nauseous the second I read the headline. “Florida sex offender tries to abduct 11-year-old girl at bus stop” was the title of the article in the NY Post. The story began, “An 11-year-old girl fought off a knife-wielding would-be kidnapper at her bus stop Tuesday morning… The 30-year-old unidentified sex offender

Weekly Update #150 Dear Members and Advocates, What makes school zones “safe” for children? Residency restrictions and proximity ordinances preventing persons required to register as sex offenders from living or even entering within thousands of feet of a school somehow create the illusion that once inside the exclusion zone, our children will be safe from sexual assault. Nothing can be

Weekly Update #148 Dear Members and Advocates, Senate Bill 234 has passed through the Florida Legislature and is now on its way to Governor DeSantis for signature. This Bill was the primary focus of our Legislative Committee this session and over the course of the last few months members have written emails, made calls, submitted speaker cards and even showed

Weekly Update #147 Dear Members and Advocates, Yesterday, a jury in Minneapolis, Minnesota found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. It was the culmination of deliberation that lasted a couple of days, a trial that lasted a few weeks, and a prosecution that lasted almost a year. But for many out there who have been fighting