Civil Rights Group Files Lawsuit Questioning Constitutionality of International Megan’s Law

2-12-16 National:

With all of President Barack Obama’s posturing for criminal reform these past few months, to some advocacy groups, his signing the International Megan’s Law seems counter intuitive to reforming the justice system. President Obama signed the bill into law on Monday, which will require convicted and registered sex offenders who committed crimes against minors to carry a special passport when traveling abroad.

The law also requires the Department of Homeland Security to inform foreign governments when these select “covered sex offenders” are traveling into their territories. In response, several civil rights groups and commentators have come together criticizing the overreaching law for misrepresenting the statistics about sex offenders and endangering individuals on the registry.

The federal Megan’s Law, later a model for individual state laws with the same name, was signed in 1996 and is named after Megan Kanka from New Jersey, who was raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender living across the street. Her murder prompted lawmakers to pass the federal law that created the first public sex offender registry, allowing sex offenders to be monitored by members of the community.

The law is particularly relevant given that some sex offenders do travel abroad to exploit children in other countries. As indicated by the bill, child pornography and child sex tourism are international phenomena. International Megan’s Law would seem to provide another layer of provision and protection, since sex offenders will now be tracked and readily identifiable outside the country.

However, not everyone has been championing the law. Civil rights group for registered sex offenders California Reform Sex Offender Laws filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch alleging that the law violates the First Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, and the Ex Post Facto Clause. According to descriptions of the lawsuit, “A passport symbol that identifies an individual as a registered sex offender could place at significant risk that person as well as others traveling with them, including family members and business colleagues.”

Similar groups, like Reform Sex Offenders Laws and Florida Action Committee, have aligned behind the lawsuit. Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform in New Hampshire voiced its opposition to the law as it was making its way through Congress, contending that the law is “absolutely void of empirical evidence that it will promote public safety or reduce child sex trafficking.”

The concern for sex offenders’ safety may seem counterintuitive; however, it is also well founded. For example, according to the language of the bill, it doesn’t appear that there are any provisions that would monitor whether foreign governments share information about sex offenders with others outside the people who need to know. These are sex offenders who have been convicted of some of the most atrocious crimes. Could the American government control who has this kind of sensitive information? If not, does this law unduly put sex offenders at risk? Do we even care? ..Continued.. by Shafaq Hasan