Judge rules on state’s sex offender registry challenge
DETROIT (AP) — A federal judg has told state officials that the Michigan Legislature needs to bring portions of its sex offender registry law into compliance with constitutional requirements.
The order could be effective 60 days after a final judgment is entered.
If the state does not bring the law into compliance, it no longer can enforce it against people on the registry with offenses before April 12, 2011, wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland in his ruling last Friday.
The ruling is part of a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the University of Michigan Clinical Law Program and the Oliver Law Group on behalf of people listed on the registry.
Michigan lawmakers changed the law in 2006 to prohibit registrants from living, working or even loitering within 1,000 feet of a school.
Five years later, the Legislature said registrants should be divided into three tiers solely on the type of conviction, not based on any individual assessment. The rules were made
retroactive.
“The court anticipates that its ruling will re-ignite efforts to finalize a new, unified registration statute that can survive constitutional review,” Cleland wrote.
The ACLU and others have pressed for changes to the law and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2017 let stand a federal appeals court decision that found Michigan was treating people as “moral lepers” by saddling them with excessive restrictions.
Attorney Miriam Aukerman with the ACLU of Michigan called the registry “an ineffective and bloated system,” and said it sabotages “people’s efforts to re-enter society” and wastes “scarce police resources on hyper-technicalities.”
Grant aims to aid students without legal status to be in U.S.
LANSING (AP) — A Michigan organization that aims to boost access to — and graduation from — college is using a philanthropic grant to help the educational aims of students without legal status to live in the United States.
The Michigan College Access Network said the $30,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan will be used to aid the new Michigan Coalition for Undocumented Student Success. Specifically, the money will help hire a program coordinator to coordinate the the translation of a student guide to college into Spanish, Arabic and Chinese; work with educators on ways to support college-bound students; and organize conference focused on increasing students’ achievements.
MCAN Executive Director Ryan Fewins-Bliss said in a statement that many of the students are first-generation immigrants and “need help navigating the additional challenges they face because of their status.”
The grant is a part of the Southeast Michigan Immigrant and Refugee Funder Collaborative.
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