Came across this ray of sunshine yesterday in the darkest of places.
Georgia.
Although an attempt to loosen sex offender restrictions stalled in the Georgia Legislature last week, the court's immediate back slap served to remind said legislators of the U.S. Constitution. Read the details here.
A federal judge...banned the state from enforcing a provision of Georgia’s tough sex-offender law that prohibits offenders from volunteering at churches.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper rejected attempts by the state to declare the class-action suit on behalf of 16,000 sex offenders to be unmanageable. Instead, Cooper allowed the lawsuit to proceed in “subclasses.”
(...)Gerry Weber, a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed suit on behalf of the plaintiffs, applauded the ruling.
“Georgia’s sex-offender law has suffered more legal setbacks than any such law anywhere in the country,” he said.
“This order should send a clear message to the General Assembly that it’s time to fix this law,” Weber said.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution , March 31, 2009
"In the past few years, Georgia's sex-offender registry has faced a series of major court challenges. The state has lost every challenge, which isn’t surprising considering the law grew out of political opportunism, not thoughtful research."
