Will Amy Coney Barrett’s Appointment to SCOTUS impact SORNA?
Weekly Update #118
Dear Members and Advocates,
Yesterday a new Justice was sworn in to the Supreme Court of the United States. Amy Coney Barrett has joined the nation’s top court and with a lifetime appointment, at the age of 48 she will probably be around for many of our lifetimes. So the question many of you are probably asking is how Justice Barrett has ruled on “sex offender issues”… During her tenure on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Justice Barrett authored two notable opinions on these issues; Beley v. Chicago and United States v. Walker.
In Beley v. Chicago, she rejected the claims of a class of homeless registrants, that the city’s refusal to register them under the Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) deprived them of due process. They wanted to be registered to avoid an arrest, conviction and up to five years in prison for failing to register. The named plaintiff’s attempts to register were rejected by the city of Chicago because they had no identification card or proof of an address. They were subsequently arrested for failure to register. The Court held that the ability to register under SORA is not a cognizable liberty interest that would trigger the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of due process (ie: a deprivation of life, liberty or property). Arguably that one didn’t go the right way for the homeless registrants. More recently though, in United States v. Walker, Judge Barrett authored an opinion that reversed the lower court’s decision and vacated the sentence of a defendant who was convicted for failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). The appellate court found that the person’s underlying sex offense did not have the necessary elements to carry a 25-year registration requirement, but instead triggered a different, 15-year federal registration requirement that had already lapsed – therefore the defendant had no duty to register under Federal SORNA and accordingly could not be convicted of failing to do something he had no obligation to do. It’s pretty fair to say this one did go the right way for the registrant. So it really is a mixed bag and we’ll have to wait until a case comes before the SCOTUS to see how it goes.
Thank you to those who have shared your events on our ‘Why is the Registry Punishment?’ post. These examples will be helpful in showing that the registry is actually punishment, despite what some courts say. If something happened to you that is inarguably punishment and that was tied to the registry (ie: fired from a job after someone found out your history, denied access to your children’s school or event, etc.) and you have not yet shared it, please add it to our list of punishments created by the registry. You can add it anonymously if you prefer, we are not looking for names, just facts. A note to those who have posted responses to other’s events or who added comments; you likely noticed your comments were not published. For this post we are ONLY looking for facts – we are not looking for commentary or discussion. If you contributed something that was not published, please don’t take it personally, just know that we are compiling a list and each comment will be an item on that list.
Finally, this week is the last weekly update before Halloween. In past years we always dedicated at least one weekly update to highlighting the now-widely-debunked urban myth that sex crimes against children spike during Halloween. This year seems a bit different. I’m sure it’s mostly due to COVID-19 and the fact that fewer children will be out Trick or Treating or at Halloween gatherings this year, but we also recognize that it absolutely has something to do with the efforts of our Media committee and those of other affiliate organizations, who have devoted a lot of effort over the past several years to pushing back against the sensationalism. Don’t get us wrong, there are still the occasional fear mongering stories out there and some stations, such as News4Jax couldn’t resist the urge to publish a “spooky” story this season to “trick” their readers into believing something that’s not true in order to bait them to their website. If any of you want a “treat”, read some of the comments or post your own… use their web traffic to educate the public.
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
Reminders:
Oct 29 Thursday at 7:30pm ET- Special Hillsborough County member call. Dial 605-472-5682, Enter code 662073#. Meet your County Coordinators and let them know your concerns. They want to hear from you. Keep your Hillsborough County team connected and working for you. With Unity Comes Change.
Oct 29 Thursday at 8:00pm ET- Special Orange County member call. Dial 319-527-3487. Meet your County Coordinators and let them know your concerns. They want to hear from you. Keep your Orange County team connected and working for you. With Unity Comes Change.
Nov 5 Thursday at 8:00pm ET- Monthly Membership Call Dial 319-527-3487. Topic: 2020 Florida Election results and Updates from the FAC teams (Legislative, Legal, Media, Membership, Outreach). If unable to connect, text “Call Me” to 319-527-3487. You will receive a call-back and be connected to the meeting.
Nov 7 Saturday Noon-3pm – Orange County Workshop in Apopka – Looking for volunteers to help stuff envelopes, prepare for meet local representatives, and plan the annual Holiday party for members. For location, RSVP to membership@floridaactioncommittee.org or call 904-452-8322, leave name(s) and phone#.
Nov 12 Thursday at 8:00pm ET New Member Orientation Call. Dial 319-527-3487. Learn more about the FAC organization, resources, and volunteer opportunities. All members are welcome to call. If unable to connect, text “Call Me” to 319-527-3487. You will receive a call-back and be connected to the meeting.
SOME HEADLINES FROM THIS WEEK
PA: Appellate Court finds registration violates right to reputation under Pennsylvania Constitution in as applied case.
Before you get too excited, this is an as-applied case, meaning the decision only benefits the person challenging and not everyone on the Pennsylvania registry, but it’s a win nonetheless, and a win on a novel argument, so it’s good news. A Pennsylvania intermediate…
Prosecutors ‘cherry-picking’ judges for sex offense cases.
The prosecutor’s office in Cook County, Illinois has been consistently asking that Judge James Linn be removed from hearing cases involving sexual crimes after he gave what prosecutors considered to be too lenient a sentence (18 years) back in 2013. According to this…
Lewdness and the modern age – should ‘mens rea’ come into play.
The Coronavirus changed the way many of us do business. Since face-to-face meetings have largely been suspended for the past six months, our conference rooms have gone virtual with platforms such as Zoom enabling people to attend meetings from the “privacy” of their…
LA: Court Strikes Louisiana’s ‘Sex Offender’ ID Requirement
A WIN!!! Louisiana’s requirement that people convicted of certain sex crimes carry a state-issued ID card with the words “SEX OFFENDER” printed on it in orange capital letters is unconstitutional, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The 6-1 ruling upholds a…
News4Jax also read the Jacksonville Helloween ordinance on their TV station, thus ensuring the public knows that if a “No Candy or Treats Here” sign is up, a “sex offender” lives there. I hope Helloween becomes a super-spreader event so governments can be sued for allowing it this year.
On Justice Barrett:
“In a 2018 case Barrett joined the two other judges on a 7th Circuit panel in rejecting the Fourth Amendment claims of three men who had been convicted of viewing and possessing child pornography.
Writing for the unanimous panel, Barrett said “we need not decide whether the searches violated the Fourth Amendment.”
Even if they did, she said, “the district courts did not err by declining to suppress the evidence, because the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies.”
Even assuming the warrant was invalid, she thought, the FBI could not reasonably have been expected to realize that.”
So she’s okay with violating the fourth amendment rights of people implicated in “sex crimes.”
What is different this year than last for Halloween is, I cannot say Nextdoor was not around in the past but it just came to my neighborhood this year. So this will be the test for me as I have already had more nasty stares when I am outside than ever before when nextdoor came to my neighborhood.
We all know we are NOT allowed on their site so cannot even see what they are saying about us. I tried to sign up and immediately got a pop up saying I was blocked from registering. Geez I wish I got that message when I tried to register at the Sheriff’s office.
I mean, I frankly don’t give a flip what Registry Supporters/Terrorists (RS/Ts) say about me. I really don’t. They aren’t people. They are just creatures that should be ignored, neutralized, marginalized, and treated as the no-accounts that they are. I can’t be bothered with them.
But, I am on nextdoor.com and I’ve found it to be quite useful for a lot of good things. I’ve been able to accomplish some things with it that I might not have been able to otherwise. One of the things was to find an animal of mine that went missing for a month. That was extremely valuable to me.
So I get extremely pissed off when any dipsh*t suggests that I should not be allowed on nextdoor.com for some idiotic reason. I have just as many reasons to be on it as anyone else and I am just as safe as anyone else. I expect I am a safer person to be on there than the average person is. By quite a lot, I would bet anything.
So … F nextdoor.com and their BS lies about why they try to keep People Forced to Register off. They are liars and immoral.
I’m not sure how I got onto nextdoor.com. Over a year ago I received an electronic invitation from our neighborhood’s nextdoor.com “leader”. I used that and signed up. But, when my wife later tried to sign up on her own, the site rejected her. I’ve tried a few more times as well and it rejects it every time.
If I were you and wanted to get on nextdoor.com, I’d just talk to a neighbor and ask if you could use their address. It could be a neighbor who lives very far away even. Just sign up. Personally, even if I didn’t care about being on nextdoor.com I would be just because they are a**holes. Same reason I will always be on Facebook. Doesn’t matter what “laws” are passed, I’ll have access one way or another.
Wage war on RS/Ts. Wage WoRST.
Amy Coney Barret
by this case in walker she made a far reach to find for walker.
I read through both cases, I would like to discuss the United States v Walker.
In reading it there was some serious conceptual gymnastics to find for Walker. Would anyone like to discuss this case because it brings a federal (Sorna) finding that overrules a state registration requirement in an advantageous result.
I worked at Amazon for 1 1/2 years and was fired because HR said they found something in my history. Obviously it was my 1992 case where I was labelled an RSO. Even though their application states they only go back 7 years. They still fired me even though there was nothing in my history except that case. For some reason most companies deem an RSO a liability and danger to others regardless of their abilities or work performance. Which I had 5 star evaluations across the board with no violations of any kind, never late to work and never called in sick…It is a work at will company so they can let anyone go with or without reason, so there’s no appealing the decision.
please post this to the “Why is the Registry Punishment” post.