NARSOL has received sad news. Our dear friend and one of our faithful and extremely competent gatekeepers, Ken Roberts, died Sunday morning, June 12, from complications related to congestive heart failure. Ken was 74.

In 2012, Ken was “on paper,” on probation. His first two probation officers were very strict in following the rules. So was he, by necessity. His third PO started out strict but over time realized that Ken wasn’t much of a threat and loosened some of the restrictions. Nevertheless, according to Ken, “I sort of went into a cocoon that I’m slowly crawling out of.”

Ken was reading the “Loving a Sex Offender” thread in the now-defunct PrisonTalk website and noticed several positive references to RSOL (later NARSOL). He checked out the national RSOL website and started following its work. After a while, he shared a couple of its brochures and the URL for its website with his PO and asked if it was okay to volunteer with them. His PO checked it out and said he thought it was a good thing to advocate for for him to advocate for his situation and gave him permission to proceed.

We are so very thankful that he did.

After correspondence with Brenda Jones, Ken was encouraged to be a state contact for his state and in 2015 became the official RSOL contact for Mississippi. That position asks the person filling it to become familiar with the state’s registry and sexual offense laws; the support that is available for jobs, housing, counseling, and legal assistance; keep up on current legislative activity that affects registrants; and communicate with people in the state to help their situation and answer questions as needed.

Later that year, Ken filled in for Tim Burgess, the then-gatekeeper for RSOL, while he went on vacation. Upon his return, Tim hinted he was looking for another person to do the gatekeeping job, and Ken decided to help out with that as well as remaining the Mississippi state contact.

What is a gatekeeper? The gatekeeper is the primary contact and liaison between an organization and people seeking information or help. Communication can be by phone or email. If there is a state contact in the person’s state, the gatekeeper usually will refer the correspondence to the state contact to follow up. If the gatekeeper doesn’t know the state or what the person’s issue is, he usually calls or emails the person back to better understand their needs.

“Part of the gatekeeper’s role is to be a good listener,” Ken related. “Often people just need to vent or share their story, and we are there to give help when we can, to give a sympathetic ear, and to give encouragement.”

Ken has been a gatekeeper ever since. He held the dual role of gatekeeper and Mississippi state contact until he had medical issues that made it necessary to drop one of the two positions. He decided to vacate the state contact position and maintain the gatekeeper role. Fortunately, we have had some other people step in to take the Mississippi position.

“It’s been gratifying to be a gatekeeper, to help people who are dealing with the many issues the registry places on them,” Ken said. “It’s enjoyable to talk or correspond with people in every corner of the nation. Maybe we can’t solve their situation, but we can at least let them know there are people who care and understand where they’re coming from.”

Ken was as good at doing that as anyone we know. He listened. He was patient. He was non-judgmental. He truly cared. He was a dear, dear friend to NARSOL, and we feel his loss greatly, but primarily, we are more appreciative than words can convey for the time he so generously gave to us.

The post A dear friend has died first appeared on NARSOL.

By Savannah . . . In May 2026, the Michigan Supreme Court issued an important decision in People v. Shaver, holding that its landmark 2021 decision in People v. Betts applies retroactively.

People who were convicted years ago for violating Michigan’s

unconstitutional registration law may now have an opportunity to have those convictions set aside.

The case arose from the experience of Gary Shaver, whose underlying offense occurred in 2004. At that time, Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) required registrants to report address changes within ten days. But over the years, the legislature dramatically expanded the law. By 2011, registrants faced far more burdensome requirements, including shorter reporting deadlines, in-person reporting, internet identifier disclosure, a tier classification system, and numerous additional restrictions.

In 2015, Shaver updated his address before moving into a new home. When the move unexpectedly fell through, his registered address remained incorrect for nineteen days. Although he had tried to comply, he was prosecuted under the much harsher 2011 version of SORA and ultimately convicted of failing to register.

Everything changed in 2021, when the Michigan Supreme Court decided People v. Betts. After examining the 2011 version of SORA in its entirety, the Betts court concluded that SORA was no longer merely a civil regulatory system. Instead, the law had become so punitive in its effects that applying it to people whose offenses occurred before the 2011 amendments violated the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto punishment. In other words, the state could not retroactively impose these new, harsher registration requirements on people whose crimes had been committed years earlier.

But one major question remained unanswered: What about people whose failure to register or disclose information convictions had already become final before Betts was decided?

That was the question presented in Shaver.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that Betts announced a new substantive constitutional rule, not merely a procedural one. Because substantive constitutional rules apply retroactively, people who had already been convicted under the unconstitutional 2011 SORA may seek relief through post-conviction proceedings.

The distinction between “substantive” and “procedural” may sound like legal jargon, but it carries enormous consequences. Procedural rules generally affect how courts conduct trials. Substantive rules, by contrast, limit the government’s power to punish certain conduct or certain people. The Michigan Supreme Court explained that Betts falls into the second category because it removes the state’s authority to punish pre-2011 registrants under the unconstitutional 2011 version of SORA.

The decision is significant for reasons beyond Michigan. Across the country, legislatures have repeatedly expanded registration laws years after people completed their criminal sentences. Courts have often struggled with the question of when those changes become punishment rather than regulation. Shaver reinforces an important constitutional principle: when a law crosses the line into punishment, the government cannot retroactively impose it on people whose offenses occurred before the law existed. Just as importantly, the decision recognizes that constitutional rights are meaningful only if they can be enforced by people whose convictions are already final.

For registrants and advocates, Shaver is a reminder that major constitutional victories do not end with the first favorable decision. Sometimes a second case is needed to ensure those victories reach the people they were meant to protect. In Michigan, Shaver does exactly that, opening the door for individuals convicted under the unconstitutional 2011 SORA to seek the relief that Betts promised.

The post  People v. Shaver — A Victory for Those Convicted Under Michigan’s Unconstitutional Registry Law first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . Vigilantes killing individuals required to be on a sex offender registry is nothing new. The first recorded case we found was in Utah in 2005. Since then these murders have occurred in Maine (a double murder), in Washington State (twice, both double murders), in Nevada, in California (at least four times), Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and at least another half-dozen states.

A significant number were cases where the murderers used the state’s registry to identify, locate, and slaughter their victims. One of the most horrific was when a couple, Jeremy and Christine Moody, tracked Charles Parker and, with gun and knife, slaughtered him and his wife Gretchen in South Carolina in 2013.

For shock value,  however, and horror verging on disbelief, it is difficult

to imagine anything more gruesome as what occurred on or about May 23, 2026, when Kian Neal slaughtered Robert Locke in Tennessee. Neal, who had been abused as a child, now–at 18 years of age–said that he decided killing someone on the registry would bring him justice. According to his statement, he used the registry to locate the registrant who lived closest to him, went to his home armed with a hammer, saw, and large trash bags, and beat Mr. Locke with the hammer repeatedly. When that was not totally effective, he choked him with the plastic trash bag ties.

Mr. Neal said that he then dismembered the body with the saw, put the body, hammer, and saw into the bags, and put them in a dumpster. Surveillance tape shows him loading two large garbage bags into a dumpster on May 23. Law officers have searched a landfill for the remains; they have not been recovered as of this posting.

This story is so fraught with tragedies that it is difficult to know where to begin.

It is a horrible tragedy that Kian Neal, for whatever reason, received no or so little help or therapy after his childhood trauma that he felt taking a man’s life would bring him justice.

It is a tragedy that Mr. Locke’s family, who reported him missing in late May, suffered the loss of their loved one in such an horrific manner and that, as of yet, they have no body to lay to rest.

It is a tragedy that persons who commit sexual crimes and are held accountable through our justice system are then marked, often for life, by public sex offender registration.

It is a tragedy that Tennessee, as well as the vast majority of other states, chooses to make the physical addresses of registrants available to the public in spite of the many, many known instances of vigilante attacks on the property, the homes, and the registered persons and their family members.

This all speaks to our justice system being broken, an utterly failed system when it comes to the handling of not only the persons who commit sexual crimes but also the persons harmed by them. For all of the millions spent on sex offender registries since their inception, they do not do what is needed.

They do not protect new victims from sexual crime; a very high percentage of all new such offenses are committed by first-time offenders. They offer no healing for previous victims. They impede, and are actually in conflict with, both private and state-sponsored rehabilitation mandates and programs.

And they facilitate vigilante activity against registrants. They allow disturbed men—and a few women—such as Kian Neal and others who have come before him to utilize the registry like a road map, locating and murdering persons they do not know out of some sense of twisted justice.

This particular situation has a relatively easy albeit temporary fix.

Whatever value is believed to be present by this information would still be accomplished with listings such as “500 block of Crawford Ave.” This would not stop vigilantes completely, but it would make them work a little harder to locate their victims. It could save some lives.

A “fix” of a more permanent nature will be much more difficult. That will require a revamping of sex offense legislation across the nation to reflect what addresses the needs of, not just victims, not just offenders, but society as a whole.

See the letter to Governor Lee here.

The post NARSOL asks TN. governor to remove registrant addresses from online registry first appeared on NARSOL.

NARSOL’s 18^th conference hit the ground running Friday morning, June 26, and didn’t slow down for two and a half days.

With powerball speakers such as Catherine Carpender and Miriam Auckerman, the

deeply moving stories of Amber Vlangas and Shawn Barrera-Leaf, and the brave advocacies of Peter Dross and Grant Hill, the conference attendees met with inspiration and encouragement at every turn.

The workshops enhanced the major presentations, completing and reinforcing what came to be recognized as the unifying theme for this conference: It takes all of us, and together we can!

The Friday night awards banquet was a delight. The meal was  good southern-cooking; the space in which to relax and enjoy the evening and each other was needed and appreciated; speaker Amber Vlangas moved us to tears, and MC Robin Vanderwall kept the program moving, culminating in the presentation of the year’s awards and the drawings for the raffle prizes.

The winners of the NARSOL 2026 awards are:

NARSOL Advocate of the Year: Shawn Barrera-Leaf

Paul E. Shannon Lifetime Achievement Award: Cindy Prizio

Braveheart Award: Grant Hill

Hawthorne Award: Catherine Carpenter

Hawthorne Award: Guy Hamilton-Smith

NARSOL Excellence in Service Award: Craig McAlexander

NARSOL Excellence in Leadership Award: Stephen Herto

Most of all, NARSOL thanks our wonderful attendees without whom there would be no conference. We are appreciative of your loyalty, your advocacy, and your dedication. Thank you!

The post NARSOL’s 18th conference is a wrap first appeared on NARSOL.

By Philip

Charleston, WV – June 17, 2026 – The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) has filed a second federal

lawsuit in the Southern District of West Virginia challenging the state law that imposes a $125 annual fee on individuals required to register as sex offenders.

The lawsuit, Basham et al. v. Mitchell, filed on behalf of West Virginia’s 6,450 registrants, argues that the fee, which became effective on January 1, 2026, constitutes an unconstitutional punitive fine rather than a legitimate administrative cost.

The Challenge

Under W. Va. Code Ann. § 15-12-2(o), registrants must pay $125 annually or face property liens, regardless of their ability to pay. The state expects the fee to generate over $800,000 per year.

Where the Money Goes

According to the complaint, none of the collected fees are earmarked for sex offender registration functions. Instead, the funds will:

• first support mental health counselors, seminars, and training for current and former West Virginia state police employees—whether or not they work with the registry;
• then fund any other expenses “essential to the general operations of the State Police.”

The complaint emphasizes that no fees will be used for “sex offender notification, registration, verification, or compliance.”

Constitutional Claims

The complaint, filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, raises an Ex Post Facto constitutional claim.

Ex Post Facto Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10)

• Unlike the earlier Kaso v. Mitchell case, this lawsuit does not assert claims under the Eighth Amendment, the Due Process Clause, or the Equal Protection Clause. Instead, it focuses exclusively on the Ex Post Facto Clause.
• Plaintiffs argue that the annual fee constitutes a retroactive punishment because it was enacted in 2025 and later amended in 2026, long after their convictions and sentences became final.
• The complaint contends that the fee is not a genuine regulatory fee but rather a punitive fine because:
  • It is imposed solely because of a past criminal conviction;
  • It can be imposed annually, often for life;
  • Nonpayment triggers a judgment lien against the registrant’s property;
  • Revenue is used for state police mental health programs and general operations rather than registry administration.
• Plaintiffs further argue that the statute fails the punitive-effects analysis described in Smith v. Doe and Mendoza-Martinez, asserting that it resembles punishment in purpose and effect.

About NARSOL & WVRSOL

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is a civil rights organization dedicated to promoting evidence-based policies and constitutional protections for individuals affected by sex offense laws.

West Virginians for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is NARSOL’s West Virginia state affiliate that advocates for registered citizens in West Virginia. We are working to make the 2020s ​a decade known for criminal justice reform, rational sexual offense laws, and restorative justice.

The post NARSOL & WVRSOL File Second Federal Lawsuit Challenging West Virginia’s $125 Annual Registry Fee first appeared on NARSOL.

Defendant, believed to be a Proud Boys member, never responded to the lawsuit. 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – A man who spent months posting false allegations about the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) on Facebook, including a fabricated claim that the organization is linked to groups advocating child sexual abuse, was ordered last week to pay NARSOL $18,458.56 in damages by North Carolina Superior Court Judge Clayton Somers.

Ronald Creighton Davis, of Pierce County, Georgia, never answered the lawsuit. He didn’t file paperwork and didn’t appear in court; he did not contest anything. 

Davis participated in multiple campaigns aimed at preventing NARSOL from holding its annual conference. The first succeeded. In June 2025, a Hilton property in Grand Rapids canceled NARSOL’s conference contract after a pressure campaign that included online threats, doxxing of NARSOL leadership, in-person hotel pamphleting, and calls to Hilton’s corporate offices. Davis bragged in his posts that he helped make that happen, affiliating his actions with the Proud Boys, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group.

The second campaign targeted a Holiday Inn property in Atlanta that fall. The strategy was the same: flood the hotel with calls, manufacture a scandal, incite outrage by falsely associating NARSOL with child sexual abuse, dox hotel staff, and make it too costly for the venue to honor the contract. This campaign failed, and the conference was held as planned.

“We are an organization advocating for the modernization of obsolete laws that ‘sound tough’ but, in reality, have proven ineffective and often harmful,” said NARSOL Executive Director Brenda Jones. “We don’t advocate for harming children. We never have. And if you visit narsol.org, you can read exactly what we do and what we don’t do, in plain English.”

Davis’s false statements were not accidental. NARSOL counsel Paul Dubbeling, Esq. of P.M. Dubbeling PLLC in Chapel Hill, described it in court filings as a deliberate strategy to invoke public fear and disgust, to make ordinary people and hotel managers react emotionally before they had time to verify anything.

“This small group systematically lied about who we are and what we do. They used lies to drive a hotel out of a legal contract with us,” said Jones. “But then, they didn’t bother to respond to a lawsuit. We sued. We won.”

NARSOL filed the lawsuit on October 7, 2025. Davis was served but failed to respond within the required time. The court’s order was filed on May 18, 2026.

“With this ruling, the court sends a clear message,” added Jones. “You cannot harass a civil rights organization out of existence by loudly repeating lies.”

Case: NARSOL v. Ronald Creighton Davis et al., No. 25CV035559-910, Wake County Superior Court, North Carolina

Media contact: Brenda Jones, bjones@narsol.org | www.narsol.org

The post NEWS RELEASE: North Carolina Court Awards NARSOL $18,458 Against Man Who Spread False Claims first appeared on NARSOL.

By Sandy . . . Is there anything more despicable than a scam? Schemes that use fear to extract money from those already living in fear go a step beyond despicable. Scams targeting people required to be listed on sex offender registries have worked their terror for longer than ten years, and they show no tendency of ending.

NARSOL warned registrants and the general public about this odious, illegal activity as soon as we became aware of it, and our efforts were eventually joined by those of law enforcement.

The scams have never stopped, but we have recently been notified of increasingly sophisticated efforts.

These scams can vary to some degree, but they will involve some variation of this: A person representing himself as someone in authority in law enforcement calls people on the registry and tells them that they are deficit in something regarding their registration, probation, or a new law; that a warrant has been or will be issued; and that he can take payment and stop the warrant.

This is what you need to know.

Law enforcement will not telephone you with notices that you are delinquent in some area of registry.

They will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ask for money over the telephone.

The scammers will sound totally professional and knowledgeable and real, but they are NOT.

Here is what you should do: HANG UP.

However, if you don’t, if you, for whatever reason, think he might be legitimate, ask for his name and tell him that you will call him back at your registry office. Then HANG UP, call your registry office, and tell them you are calling to report a potential scam.

For more thorough information, including some law enforcement warnings, here are a few of the previously printed pieces. Some of the links within some of the pieces may no longer work.

https://www.narsol.org/2023/11/law-enforcement-paying-attention-to-sex-offender-scams/

https://www.narsol.org/2021/08/be-sure-you-know-about-sex-offender-scams/

https://www.narsol.org/2021/06/new-scam-warning-out-of-virginia/

https://www.narsol.org/2020/02/beware-of-scams-targeting-those-on-the-registry/

The post Scams targeting people listed on sex offender registries are alive and well in the U.S. first appeared on NARSOL.

Updated 4/23/2026; originally published 2/4/2025 at narsol.org as Sex offender residency restrictions: bad, bad public policy.”

By Sandy . . . Residency restrictions for persons required to register as sexual offenders are often enacted for no reason other than neighboring towns have implemented them. They spread like wildfire, and like that

destructive force, they wreak their own form of havoc, making it more and more difficult for registrants to find decent housing for themselves and their families. This, in turn, makes it more and more difficult for them to create the stability they need to become productive citizens, which, according to research, is what drives down recidivism.

What with adding more people to the registry and in some cases making the laws retroactive, the number of individuals caught up in this maelstrom of flame grows exponentially each year.

The spark that starts the blaze is one we all share, the drive to keep our children safe. Residency restrictions, however, are an inappropriate and contraindicated response to that desire. They are based on three assumptions that are contradicted by evidence:

Residency restrictions assume most child sexual abuse is committed by persons unknown or barely known to their random victims when in reality 93% or higher of cases involves someone well known to the children who have been specifically chosen.

The percentage of situations in which a prior relationship exists between an abuser and a child victim varies dependent on the age of the victim. A study done by the Office of Juvenile Justice found that for very young children, family members and very close acquaintances comprise close to 100% of their offenders while for teens, those categories make up 94.3%. The U.S. Department of Justice, in a mega study, found that overall, 93% of the offenders of children and teens were either family members or trusted acquaintances (p.10).

The policies presume offenders choose victims based on residential proximity, which is not supported by research.

Residency restrictions create zones around schools, daycare facilities, and often parks. These laws and policies, once begun, spread throughout a state with unstoppable ferocity. A two-state study, Michigan and Missouri, did not support the mistaken theory that living close to one of these was a factor in repeat sexual offenses against children. Another study examining several states found “. . . proximity to schools and daycares, with other risk factors being comparable, does not appear to contribute to sexual recidivism. These data do not support the widespread enactment of residential restrictions for sexual offenders” (introduction).

Residency restrictions assume that most sexual abuse is committed by repeat offenders, which research shows to be inaccurate.

On average, a significant majority of registered sex offenders are one-time, first-time-convicted offenders. A study in New York found that “. . . over 95% of all sexual offense arrests were committed by first-time sex offenders, casting doubt on the ability of laws that target repeat offenders to meaningfully reduce sexual offending” (abstract), and a study from the university of Tennessee had very similar findings. They report, “Another factor constraining [sex offender registries’] effectiveness is that past studies have shown that . . .‘94.1% of those arrested for child molestation were first-time sex offenders’ ” (conclusion of major findings).

Restrictions often force offenders away from support systems, treatment, stable housing, and employment opportunities, which are crucial for successful reintegration. These are the elements associated with remaining offense-free. Some areas are so encompassed by residency restrictions that homelessness has escalated, especially in states where residency restrictions are aggressively implemented, states as diverse as Wisconsin,  Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, and many more.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the state of Kansas, which actually has a page on its DOC website about why residency restrictions do not work; the state passed legislation in 2006 prohibiting its  jurisdictions from implementing them.

What drives down reoffense? Housing and employment

stability, access to evidence-based treatment, amd family and community connectedness. What makes those things difficult, sometimes impossible? Residency restrictions.

Are there individuals for whom restrictions from a specific type of place is appropriate? Almost assuredly, and they should be handled on an individualized basis.

Creating “umbrella” laws that indiscriminately restrict everyone listed on a state’s registry, or everyone of a certain classification or tier, thus creating pockets of homeless registrants and acting as a barrier between registrant and rehabilitation, is more than just inappropriate and contraindicated.

It is unrestrained madness.

The post Sex offender residency restrictions–a harmful response first appeared on NARSOL.

By Calvin Till . . . Across the United States, one of the most significant barriers faced by people on the registry is not employment or supervision; it is housing. Without stable housing, successful reentry becomes exponentially more difficult, and individuals leaving incarceration often find themselves caught in a cycle of instability that increases the likelihood of failure. In North Dakota, a small but determined network of organizations and advocates are working to change that reality.

On May 1, 2025, the F5 Project opened the Restorative Paths program

in Fargo, a transitional housing residence designed specifically for individuals on the state sex offender registry who are returning to the community after incarceration. The program provides a structured, supportive, living environment where participants can focus on rebuilding their lives. As the live-in peer support specialist, care coordinator, and house manager for the program, I have had the privilege of helping guide that process. My role involves far more than simply managing a residence. Each day includes helping residents navigate reentry challenges—connecting them with employment opportunities, assisting with housing searches, coordinating with parole and probation officers, and supporting individuals as they adjust to life outside of prison or jail. For many participants, the transition back into society can be overwhelming, The stigma attached to registry status creates additional barriers that most returning citizens do not encounter.

What makes this work particularly meaningful for me is that I share lived experience with the individuals we serve. As a registrant myself, I understand firsthand the obstacles that accompany reentry: the closed doors, the skepticism, and the frustration of trying to rebuild while carrying a label that follows you everywhere. That shared experience often creates a level of trust that is difficult to replicate through more-traditional supervision models. When residents see someone who has navigated similar barriers and is now working in a role that supports others, it reinforces the idea that progress is possible.

Our work in Fargo is not happening in isolation; F5 will be opening another Restorative Paths house in Bismarck, North Dakota, around June of this year. These efforts are also supported by a broader network of organizations committed to helping people on the margins rebuild their lives. The F5 Project in North Dakota provides mentorship, recovery support, and reentry services for individuals transitioning out of incarceration. Through employment connections, peer support, and community engagement, F5 has become a critical resource for individuals seeking a second chance.

Faith-based and community organizations have also played an important role. Ministry on the Margins in Bismarck works directly with people experiencing homelessness, incarceration, and extreme poverty, offering outreach and support to those who often fall through the cracks of traditional systems. Similarly, AID, Inc. in Mandan, ND, provides services and assistance to individuals facing significant life challenges, helping bridge gaps in housing, resources, and community connections. Together, these organizations demonstrate an important truth: Successful reentry requires collaboration. Housing providers, advocacy groups, recovery programs, and community partners must work together to create pathways forward for individuals who are often written off by society.

Many individuals returning from incarceration are simultaneously navigating recovery from substance use disorders, making integrated support systems essential. To further strengthen my ability to contribute to this field, I am currently pursuing an associate degree in Human Services, with plans to continue toward a bachelor’s degree in the same discipline. This will provide a foundation with the hope of advocating more effectively for policies and programs that support successful reintegration.

The reality is that when individuals leaving incarceration have access to stable housing, employment opportunities, and supportive community networks, the outcomes improve dramatically. Reentry stops being a revolving door and begins to look like genuine restoration. Programs like the Restorative Paths residence in Fargo demonstrate what is possible when communities invest in solutions rather than stigma.

For those of us who have lived on the margins, the opportunity to help others navigate that path forward is more than a job; it is a commitment to ensuring that second chances are not just an idea but a reality.

Calvin is NARSOL’s representative in North Dakota.

The post From the Margins to the Work of Reentry:  Housing, Advocacy, and Second Chances in North Dakota first appeared on NARSOL.

Charleston, WV – March 13, 2026 – The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) has filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of West Virginia challenging  West Virginia’s registry law that requires individuals on the State’s sex offense registry to disclose all internet accounts and online identifiers to law enforcement.

The class action lawsuit, Does et al. v Mitchell, filed on behalf of West Virginia’s 6,679 registrants, argues that the law imposes sweepingly overbroad reporting obligations that chill lawful online speech and undermine the constitutional First Amendment right to anonymous expression on the internet.

The complaint further argues that the statute is unconstitutionally vague because it does not define what constitutes an “internet account,” leaving individuals and law enforcement uncertain about what must be reported and exposing them to criminal penalties.

Under W. Va. Code § 15-12-2(d)(8), registrants must provide information relating to “any internet accounts” they possess, including screen names, usernames, and aliases. Additionally, registrants must report any new, removed, or changed internet accounts in person within ten (10) business days.

Failure to disclose the information can result in a felony conviction carrying a mandatory prison sentence of one to five years for a first offense.

The plaintiffs ask the Court to declare the internet ID requirement unconstitutional and issue an injunction prohibiting enforcement of the law.

The class action suit, represented by three West Virginia registrants, is partially funded by WVRSOL, NARSOL’s West Virginia state affiliate.

NARSOL will provide updates as the case progresses.

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws is a civil rights organization dedicated to promoting evidence-based policies and constitutional protections for individuals affected by sex offense laws.

Note to media: Court documents and supporting materials available upon request.

The post NARSOL Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging West Virginia’s Internet ID Requirement first appeared on NARSOL.