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Pennsylvania?s Sex Offender Notification Statute must apply equally to in-state and out-of-state sex offenders

By Candace Hom, Melinda Ghilardi, Nancy Rimmer, Sarah Gannett, Renee Pietropaolo and Tieffa Harper

In Doe v. Pennsylvania Bd. of Probation, No. 05-4200 (3d Cir. Jan. 23, 2008), a Court of Appeals panel, affirming the decision of District Court Judge Louis Pollak, held in a 2-1 decision that a provision in Pennsylvania?s sex offender notification statute that treated out-of-state sex offenders differently from in-state sex offenders violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The anonymous plaintiff, John Doe, brought an action under 42 USC § 1983, claiming that Pennsylvania?s Registration of Sexual Offender?s Act, 42 Pa. C.S. § 9791 et. seq. ("Megan?s Law"), violated the Equal Protection Clause. Doe is a Pennsylvania resident who was convicted of a sexual offense in New Jersey and sought to return to Pennsylvania to serve his parole...continue to full post

Full post as published by Third Circuit Blog on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).