Megan's Laws & Establishment Clause Outline of Handouts --Topic 1 Megan'

General background. Fifty states and the District of Columbia have recently enacted laws requiring convicted sex offenders (SO's) to register with police and make certain public reports. The original motivation for Megan's laws or SORLs, sex offender registration and reporting laws, was a lurid sex crime in New Jersey in 1994. A 7-year old girl, Megan Kanka, was abducted, raped and murdered by a neighbor. In 1996 Congress passed the Wetterling Act, 42 U.S.C. 14071 (1994 and Supp. V 1999), which conditioned certain types of federal aid on the adoption by states of sex offender registration and public information laws.

Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety, et al. Petitioners, v.

John Does on Writ of Certiorari to 2d Cir. Court of Appeals, July 19, 2002. Summary of Briefs:

Issues. Respondent, who was convicted of a violent sex offense before Connecticut's SORL went into effect challenged the law's constitutionality on the grounds that it was an Art. I, sec. 10 ex post facto law and that his rights to procedural due process were violated because the law caused him to be stigmatized and defamed as a dangerous sex offender without his having been afforded an opportunity to show that he was not dangerous. The District Court and Court of Appeals agreed with his procedural due process claim. They held that the central flaw in the law is that the registration requirement and SO registry did not differentiate between dangerous and non-dangerous SO's. The Court

Related Essays

Megan's Law Statutes .... 895 (2000). Lawrence v. Texas, 123 S.Ct. .... Ct. App. 2002). "Megan's Law." New Jersey Public Laws 1994, chapter.133 (codified at Title 2C:7-1 - 7-11 (1994)). .... (2725 11 )

Sexual Offender Registration .... 895 (2000). Lawrence v. Texas, 123 S.Ct. .... Ct. App. 2002). "Megan's Law." New Jersey Public Laws 1994, chapter.133 (codified at Title 2C:7-1 - 7-11 (1994)). .... (2724 11 )

MANDATORY SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION Introductio .... As the laws are increasingly being implemented in various states, there will be legal challenges .... NJ's Megan's Law is seen as model, but still has its flaws. .... (6787 27 )

Seven Short Essays .... that he does not take the wording of laws so literally .... clear that the Ex Post Facto Clause(s) does not .... In a recently (2003) decided Megan's Law case regarding .... (2532 10 )

Seven Legal Questions 1) In his 1997 book, A Ma .... that he does not take the wording of laws so literally .... clear that the Ex Post Facto Clause(s) does not .... In a recently (2003) decided Megan's Law case regarding .... (2532 10 )

SEX OFFENDERS This research paper outlines and .... 5-4 decision in Kansas v. Hendricks, 117 S. Ct .... 1997), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of such laws. .... after a 7 year old girl named Megan Kanka who .... (3548 14 )

ies Union called that "classic retroactive punishment" (p. 2). John Roberts of the State of Alaska argued that the law was not punitive because its purpose was to protect the public, and minors in particular and therefore, has a regulatory purpose. Totenberg asked whether it is fair to so stigmatize a SO without giving him "some right to refute his listing as a sex offender beforehand?" (p. 3). In California, minor SOs have to register, but public disclosure of what they submit is limited. In Connecticut some minor SO's have a right to a hearing on their degree of dangerousness. Thompson said "the trouble with Alaska's law . . . is that there are no individualized determinations as to that person's risk of re-offending" (p. 3). Denise M. Bonilla and Joy L. Woodson, "ON THE LAW: Continuing Debate Over Megan's Law: Some question whether sex offender list curbs crime." Los Angeles Times, February 14, 2003. This article raises most of the key public policy issues associated with Megan's Laws. First, the authors note that the laws' enactment was motivated in large part by powerful public emotional reactions to heinous sex crimes. They question whether emotion provides a proper basis for the enactment of such laws. Workability.

Category: Government - M