The Fallacy behind Florida’s Internet Identifier bill for Sex Offenders

Weekly Update 2017-02-08

Dear Members and Advocates,

This past week, we saw our first significant “sex offender” Bill come out of the Florida Senate and it concerns Internet Identifiers.

It would seem; in response to the issuance of an injunction in the Internet Identifier legal challenge, the legislature is seeking to pass a more “watered down version” of the Internet Identifier registration requirement that was stopped by the lawsuit.  The bill would require the registration of identifiers used for “social communication” and not business communication and would only require disclosure of the main domain where it was used (ie: floridaactioncommittee.org) as opposed to the entire URL (ie: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/florida-senator-baxley-proposes-new-internet-identifier-bill/).

At first blush, it appears that the Senate is attempting a compromise that would be less burdensome. However, the compromise ignores the crux of the lawsuit’s legal argument; that the internet identifier registration requirement, as written in the 2014 (now-enjoined statute) and as proposed in this bill, infringes on the First Amendment rights of individuals. As Judge Hinkle pointed out in his September order; if a registrant one day choses to make a comment on an article, he must make his identity available to the public – unlike everyone else he cannot comment anonymously.

Especially for those who are off probation, our First Amendment rights are fundamental and critically important to us. Would any of us feel comfortable speaking out here, against the FDLE (who is the defendant in the lawsuit) on this very issue if we had to inform the FDLE that we were “Tim123” on “www.floridaactioncommittee.org<http://www.floridaactioncommittee.org>“? You’d think not! That’s the very “chilling” of our right to engage in anonymous free speech that we fought for and the Senate’s Bill still ignores.

For that reason, FAC is in OPPOSITION to Senate Bill 684. Whether the Bill becomes law or not, the lawsuit continues.

Sincerely,

The Florida Action Committee

SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK

Loophole in Florida sex offender law draws call for change<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/loophole-florida-sex-offender-law-draws-call-change/>

NAPLES, Fla. – A Golden Gate Estates woman whose stepfather molested her was horrified to learn he had moved into a house less than a mile from an Orlando elementary school. “It hit me like a ton of bricks,” Christin Olsen said. “It slapped me in the face.” A Florida…

Florida Senator Baxley Proposes New Internet Identifier Bill<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/florida-senator-baxley-proposes-new-internet-identifier-bill/>

To combat the order from the Northern District of Florida, Enjoining the enforcement of the 2014 amendments to the registration laws as they relate to “Internet Identifiers”, Florida Senator Baxley has sponsored a new internet identifier bill, which can be read here:…

MN: Sex offenders renew legal challenge<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/mn-sex-offenders-renew-legal-challenge/>

MINNEAPOLIS – Lawyers for over 700 people committed indefinitely to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program are asking the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling that the program is constitutional. The appeals panel last month…

SCAM: ClearMyCase.com Review<https://floridaactioncommittee.org/warning-clearmycase-com/>

We have been informed that a company out of Texas called “CLEARMYCASE.COM” has been soliciting individuals on the Florida Registry claiming they might be able to help them “deregister” and charging a $100 “consultation fee”. Please do not fall for this scam.  …