Template:Reform Sex Offender Laws News/International Megan's Law

edit  

International Megan's Law

• Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over Sex Offender Passport Marker

A lawsuit challenging a law that requires a marker to be placed in the passports of people convicted of sex offenses against children is premature because the marker provision is not yet in effect, a federal judge said Friday in a ruling dismissing the suit.
(The Associated Press, ABC News, September 23, 2016)

• Experts: Don’t rely on Megan’s Law to prevent sexual violence

Advocates for offenders say Megan's Law registries continue to punish them even after they have served their sentence.
(Daniel Walmer, The Lebanon Daily News, June 24, 2016)

• Government Files Motion to Dismiss IML Lawsuit

The federal government filed a Motion to Dismiss the IML lawsuit this week. The government’s motion is based upon allegations that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing and that the challenge to the addition of a unique identifier to passports is not yet ripe
(Staff writer, CA RSOL, April 23, 2016)

• Judge (U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton) rejects request to block passport marker law

A federal judge declined Wednesday to immediately block a law that requires a marker to be placed in the passports of people convicted of sex offenses.
(SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press, April 13, 2016)

• International Megan’s Law Injunction – No decision yet

The judge in the case did not make a decision at the end of the hearing. Presumably she will take some time, digest, investigate the law and then issue an order in the very near future. Can take days, can take weeks, unlikely more. ( CA RSOL, US, March 31, 2016)

• The U.S. Congress Has Successfully Extended the “Megan” Franchise

We lost the battle, brewing for some eight years in Congress, which will effectively stop those of us, U.S. 'registered sex offenders', from venturing beyond our own countries. The enactment of International Megan's Law is not the end of the war, however, as we are fighting back against this injustice in the courts and, to the extent that we wield any influence, in the media.
(David Kennerly, March 6, 2016)

• Motion Filed to Stop Implementation of International Megan’s Law

A Motion for Preliminary Injunction was filed on February 19 asking the U.S. District Court to stop implementation of International Megan’s Law (formerly HR 515 and now Public Law 114-119). If granted, the motion would temporarily prohibit the federal government from both adding a conspicuous, unique identifier to the passports of registrants and notifying foreign countries of registrants’ plans to travel internationally. ( CA RSOL, US, February 20, 2016)

• Civil Rights Group Challenges New Law Requiring Marking on Sex Offender Passports

A civil rights group for accused and convicted sex offenders is challenging legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law on Monday, which will require the State Department to affix an identifying marker to registered sex offenders’ passports. ( Lauren Walker, Newsweek, US, February 9, 2016)

File:480px-President Barack Obama.jpg

• President Signed HR 515, International Megan’s Law

President Obama signed HR 515 into law on February 8. The law will require federal agencies to notify destination countries that registered citizens are coming to visit as well as to require the Secretary of State to add a “unique identifier”…
( CA RSOL, US, February 8, 2016)

• International Megan’s Law passes with no opposition

The discussion in the U.S. House pertinent to International Megan's Law has ended with a vote to pass the resolution; it will now go to the President for his signature. Ten legislators spoke in favor of the bill. (Sandy - RSOL, US, February 2, 2016)

• Bill to mark sex offender passports raises ire of criminal justice advocacy group

A criminal justice advocacy group is prepared to sue the federal government if President Obama signs into law a measure requiring child-sex offenders to be identified as such on their passports — a move they say is as hypocritical for a president pushing for broad criminal justice reform. (Andrea Noble - The Washington Times, US, February 3, 2016)

• Do sex offenders deserve a scarlet letter on their passport?

After rousing themselves from the 30-plus-year bad trip that was the war on drugs — or rather, the war on drug users — many Americans in and out of elected office looked around for someone else to persecute. Someone, somewhere, must be so depraved and hateful that liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans could join in common cause to vilify them. (The Times Editorial Board - Los Angeles Times, US, February 3, 2016)

• RSOL PLANNING TO CHALLENGE HR 515 WHICH MANDATES THE ADDITION OF “UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS” TO PASSPORTS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS

Albuquerque, N.M.— Reform Sex Offender Laws, Inc. is disappointed that the U.S.House of Representatives ​concurred with HR 515​ as amended by the Senate on February 1​. HR 515 will require, for the first time in the history of the United States, the addition of “unique​identifiers”… (Sandy - RSOL, US, February 3, 2016)

• International Megan’s Law passes with no opposition

The discussion in the U.S. House pertinent to International Megan’s Law has ended with a vote to pass the resolution; it will now go to the President for his signature. Ten legislators spoke in favor of the bill.
(Sandy - RSOL, US, February 2 2016)

• Janice’s Journal: A Blizzard in the Nation’s Capitol Provides a Window of Opportunity

It took a miracle, a miracle in the form of a blizzard in Washington, D.C., to slow down Congress’ consideration of HR 515, the International Megan’s Law bill. Prior to the blizzard, the bill was on a fast track to a speedy vote under a “suspension of the rules” which would have ruled out any discussion or debate of this historic and misguided legislation.
(Janice - CA RSOL, US, January 26, 2016)

• Labeling sex offenders’ passports is overkill

Say you slept with your girlfriend when you were a senior in high school and she was a freshman. That’s enough to get you labeled a sex offender in some states. (Lenore Skenazy - New York Post, US, January 6, 2016)

• WaPo: The yellow star, the scarlet letter, and ‘International Megan’s Law’

David Post has a new column in The Washington Post about the limitations and dangers of the brand-new (and little-known) International Megan’s Law making its way through Congress. The law would place a badge on all US passports of anyone previously convicted of a sex crime involving a minor. Post... (Andrew Extein - CSJ, US, January 7, 2016)

• SO passports to be tagged like Jewish IDs under Hitler

When I was growing up, in a Jewish family in Brooklyn in the 1950s, Hitler and the Holocaust were common subjects of conversation in my household. Though at the time it all seemed like…
(David Post - RSOL, US, January 7, 2016)

• The thin wedge to immobilize citizens

The International Megan's Law bill now before Congress/ a systematic effort to erode the foreign travel rights of American “registered sex offenders. (News article, David Kennerly)

See also: “HOMELAND SECURITY'S” ASSAULT ON TRAVEL and DEAD END: The International Megan's Law's Assault on Everyone's Freedom of Travel

• International Megan's Law

The International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking, also known as the International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders, H.R. 515, is a bill that would require the notification of foreign governments when an American registered as a sex offender of children is going to be traveling to their country.