Community Corner

When Should Someone Have to Register as a Sex Offender?

U.S. Supreme Court may come up with an answer based on case from our region.

Sex-offender registries, well intentioned but with some faults still being ironed out, have been around in various jurisdictions at least since 2006, when the U.S. Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act.

In many jurisdictions, changes were made after college kids caught urinating outdoors were charged with indecent exposure — landing them on sex-offender registries and all the Google searches that go with it. 

Other cases are more complicated, like the one involving a  24-year-old swimming instructor who had a sexual relationship with a male student younger than 16.

The woman was convicted in Virginia in 1993 of unlawful sex with a teenager and served 30 days in jail. Fifteen years later, the state passed a new law that reclassified her and thousands of others as violent sex offenders. The woman has challenged the law, and now her lawsuit is on the agenda of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Courts in Georgia and Ohio have already ruled that sex offender laws in those states have gone too far, which brings us to a question: 

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  • Under what circumstances should people be required to register as sex offenders?  Tell us in comments below.


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