Emma, the establishment of its registry and the construction of the laws governing that registry is left to each state. It is confusing. All the federal government did was require each state to establish a registry. They cannot dictate how that registry is carried out. It’s called states rights, and that is a very important part of our heritage. The Adam Walsh Act is an attempt to equalize the registry across all states, but it wouldn’t because many states have laws and restrictions much stricter than what the AWA puts forth, and they wouldn’t scale those back even if states were forced to all accept AWA. At this point, only 15 states are AWA compliant.

People do realize these show up on background checks right? The registration without regard to how long it’s been in the past. Lifetime ding on it. And the Sherriff’s Office in Wilcox County Georgia, calls any potential employer to verify they are hiring you. So if they don’t get the comprehensive package to get the sex offender check, they get a call from police stating they are hiring a sex offender, and are they sure basically that they want to.

How does this not violate the 8th, or constitute slander.

For all I agree. But especially for those of us who were applied retroactively. There was no registry when my incident took place, nor when I was arrested, and not when I was sentenced.
Myself and many others never got the opportunity others later on got to do. And that is to be able to plea deal based on being put on the registry. How is that “Fair and just” sentencing? The courts can agrue it is not the judges fault because they didn’t have a registry to base things on. But how is it our fault that we cannot do anything about the retroactive application of the so called “non” punishment ?