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They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Nowhere is that clearer than in the case of Meghan’s law. While many states have their own version, the US Government version was passed in 1996 as US public law 104-145 and required law enforcement in all states to publish the identities and addresses of sexual predators. It was a great piece of legislation for parents worried about who their neighbor is and are their kids in danger, but it created unintended byproducts: vigilantism, violence against mistaken individuals, and a false sense of security.
If one simply thinks that all sexual predators have been caught, adjudicated, and placed on the registry, then the list is a Godsend. But the reality is that the list is, at best, incomplete. Worse, it is fatally flawed because it lacks context.
Take for example, the story of William Elliott, 19 at the time of his “offense.” He had consensual sex with his girlfriend who was 2 weeks shy of her 16th birthday making the act “Statutory rape” under the law. In court records, both the defense and the prosecution stipulated to the consensual nature and the romantic involvement but that 2 weeks shy of 16 is not 16 and therefore, she was not considered legally old enough to make that decision. William served a light sentence due to the context of the crime but was required to placed on the sex offenders’ registry as a person who had sex with a minor.
In the early morning of April 16, 2006, Stephen Marshall, a vigilante, researched the registry for someone to kill. Reading only the available information that William Elliott plead guilty to sex with a minor and served 4 months in prison, he went to the home of William Elliott, which he also read online on the registry, and shot him dead while he slept. He later killed another man he read about on the registry, Joseph Gray, 57 at the time. He shot him dead as his wife watched in horror.
In the town of Phillipsburg, NJ, a man who had the misfortune of having the same name as a vigilante’s target, was severely beaten. It was later discovered that he was the wrong person.
Unfortunately, these kinds of events are NOT rare and were NEVER anticipated in the wake of trying to provide some level of safety for children and parents, but the reality is that there are a PLETHORA of studies by Universities and Organizations all over the US that all agree on one thing….that minors who are sexually molested or raped are overwhelmingly molested or raped by someone the know well, NOT a stranger. Yes, there are the few cases that involve strangers, but that is not the majority of cases…not even a sizable minority.
And so it comes as no surprise that extreme right-wing, ultra conservative, MAGA organizations have been going to court over releasing voter registration records so they can publicize them. Your voter registration records contain sensitive information like your voter party affiliation, your name and address, your phone number and email address if it was provided by you when you registered. The courts in many jurisdictions have upended longstanding privacy regulations and said that these organizations must be given these records. The groups claim that hey want the public to see the names and report improprieties so they can take action to either go after voter fraud or seek to remove people from the active voter rolls so that they cannot vote. At issue is your right to keep your voting record, party affiliation and address out of the hands of bad actors who can use it to steal your identity or worse, create confusion alleging your name appears in more than one location and therefore, you are guilty of voter fraud and taken off the roles until you can prove otherwise. Additionally, will the attacks only target Democrats since these lists will be publicized on Conservative Republican outlets?? How many people will be disenfranchised or worse, unregister themselves so as to protect their private information, but then not be able to vote. It is court sanctioned voter suppression and people should be outraged but instead, the press is silent, and the right is applauding this attack on privacy. It never ceases to amaze me to see how the 2nd amendment is first and foremost on their minds and in nearly every commentary from them, but the first, fourth, and ninth amendments’ implied right to privacy, means absolutely nothing to them. Constitutional law and civil law all understand the right to privacy and its foundations in the Bill of Rights introduced by James Madison in 1789. The first amendment forms the foundation for the freedom of conscience or as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said in the 1965 ruling, “the right to be left alone.” The fourth amendment dictates the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” And the ninth amendment says, “[t]he enumeration of the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Collectively, these amendments imply the right of privacy and now, a few judges want to overturn that basic right to privacy.