Proposition 35's Demand For Sex Convicts' Online IDs Blocked By Judge

By Dennis Romero Fri., Nov. 9 2012 at 9:06 AM

L.A. County

Looks like the ACLU was successful in its move to block parts of the California sex trafficking law that passed Tuesday with 81 percent support.

The organization was unhappy with provisions that required even minor sex deviants (folks convicted of having sex in view of the public, say) to give up their user names and email addresses to law enforcement.

A judge this week appeared to share the ACLU's view:

The judge temporarily blocked those provisions of Proposition 35 that require offenders to divulge their online info.

The ACLU, which was joined by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argued that these facets of the initiative violate the free speech rights of even sex convicts.

EFF staff attorney Hanni Fakhoury said this earlier this week:

Requiring people to give up their right to speak freely and anonymously about civic matters is unconstitutional, and restrictions like this damage robust discussion and debate on important and controversial topics. When the government starts gathering online profiles for one class of people, we all need to worry about the precedent it sets.

Supporters of the law defended the provisions in a statement emailed to the Weekly and other outlets yesterday. Chris Kelly, former chief privacy officer at Facebook said:

On-line registration for sex offenders is legal. Plain and simple. It's already been ruled constitutional and is a valuable tool for prosecutors, law enforcement and advocates for justice. This law is narrow, specific and focuses on keeping sex offenders from preying upon women and children on-line.

The federal judge, saying the ACLU's suit had raised "serious questions" about the constitutionality of the online provisions, blocked them until at least Nov. 20, when there would be a full hearing in court.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

ACLU, election 2012, freedom of speech, Proposition 35, sex trafficking

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LA_WEAKLY

Fundamentally, the law just railroaded a bunch of different shit into the prop that would never pass judicial muster. You should never lose your unalienable rights to free and protected anonymous speech.

And on that note, fuck sex traffickers.

simondelao

Most sex offenders are Jewish. Just identify the JEW and you will have identified the PERVERT. Its so simple.

margarateatwood

Sex trafficking is such a serious problem, especially in CA, Nevada, and tourist destinations. It's a shame that the ACLU was brought in to undermine a law that would save children form the horrifying life of sex trafficking. These girls are brought into the country pre-adolescence. Runaways, too, are trafficked. By the time the victims of trafficking are found, they've been prostituting for years, and have STD's, untold psychological trauma, and many life skills problems. We do a better job helping victims of traficking overseas than here.