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Miami sex offender residency restriction upheld by state court

By Douglas A. Berman

This Miami Herald story, headlined "Judge rules Miami-Dade sex-offender residency law is valid," reports on a new ruling in a high-profile case involving a local residency restriction in Florida.  Here are the basics: The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida failed to persuade a Miami-Dade circuit court judge to undo strict local ordinances that forced a group of convicted sex offenders to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway. In the suit, filed against Miami-Dade County, the ACLU argued Thursday the county's ordinance banning sex predators from living within 2,500 feet of schools conflicts with a state statute that sets the boundary at 1,000 feet.  Essentially, the ACLU claimed there was an "implied preemption'' by the Legislature that local municipalities' ordinances would fall in line with the state's law...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).