First published at NARSOL: Awesome victory in Montana
By Larry of NARSOL
On June 14, 2023, a court decided the question of whether a “retroactive application of the Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act violated the prohibition against ex post facto punishment in Article II, Section 31 of the Montana Constitution.”
Larry says that “states appear to be unable to help themselves, continually piling on more requirements that transform what was originally a relatively benign regulatory system into something clearly punitive.”
As difficult as it has been for people on the sex offender registry to live with a growing number of harsh and punitive regulations, the silver lining is that states are turning what was once considered nonpunitive regulations in the late 90’s into a system of unconstitutional and inhumane laws. Even FDLE has warned our Florida Legislators in Tallahassee that if more registry requirements are added, courts will most assuredly start ruling the whole registry is unconstitutional – a fact that we already know to be true.
As so often has happened in the past, in 2003 the Montana Supreme Court issued a decision that Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act was not punitive. This same court has ruled this summer that registrants are being “placed under a probationary surveillance system in perpetuity which is designed to facilitate social ostracism.”
Thank you, Larry, for keeping everyone updated on this recent win.
https://dailymontanan.com/2023/11/05/montana-supreme-court-retroactive-punishment-for-sexual-violent-offenders-is-unconstitutional/
Update I guess??
This Montanan ordeal has a good ring to it and a hope for many. Their is a new word that authorities and leaders take for granted. One can call it subverting Justice. Sure many can reach into the good book and see how kings and leaders subvert justice.
We are all cardinal by nature. Even those authorities that push, provoke, etc in much of this sex registry to get one under their thumb. Call it fraud or trickery or getting over on others for promotional reasons or other reasons such as “its for public safety”. Setting another up for a fall is the worst thing anyone can do to another.
https://www.registrymatters.co/podcast/rm274-exposing-svoras-secrets-the-montana-supreme-court-verdict/
With Guy Hamilton-Smith on as a guest
I wish he would have talked more about the cases he is currently working on.
” Even FDLE has warned our Florida Legislators in Tallahassee that if more registry requirements are added, courts will most assuredly start ruling the whole registry is unconstitutional ”
Even Abraham Lincoln said it : ” The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly ”
The rule of law suffers when we have too many laws.
Here were oral arguments https://youtu.be/zGQ5gJ0LMnQ
Replace Montana with Florida and it’s word for word what’s happening here as well.
I just the whole thing and it was awesome. The Supreme Court of Montana shredded all attempts of the state to justify their registry. It was beautiful
I just tried to save the oral arguments video to my save for later and couldn’t because YouTube has it marked as “made for children” which limits things like saving or commenting on the video. I’ve never encountered that on a video of this kind before and find it very odd. I mean in what way is this video made for children. There’s just something off about the video being classified in this way imo
From what I could find in the 9th circuit which covers Montana you have I believe 60 days to file an appeal to the district court, does anyone know if the state appealed this decision? I looked and could not find anything his Case #: DA 20-0197 if anyone has a pacer account it might give the update if there is an appeal. And if so the 9th covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. So an appeal here would be huge In potential ramifications.