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U.S. Supreme Court/Amicus
Ed Barocas/ACLU-NJ; Michael Buncher, Brian Neff/Public Defender's Office
In August 2002, the ACLU-NJ filed a joint amicus brief with the New Jersey Public Defender's Office and the New Jersey Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on the issue of whether Alaska's Sex Offender Internet Registry inflicts punishment in violation of the Ex Post Facto and Double Jeopardy Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The Alaska law is similar to New Jersey's Sex Offender Internet Registry Act, against which we have filed a challenge (see A.A., et al. v. State of New Jersey, et al. above, under Privacy Rights cases). On March 5, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Alaska's Internet Megan's Law registry is remedial as opposed to punitive, and thus does not violate the Ex Post Facto or Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Constitution. The Supreme Court wrote: "The purpose and the principal effect of notification are to inform the public for its own safety, not to humiliate the offender. Widespread public access is necessary for the efficacy of the scheme, and the attendant humiliation is but a collateral consequence of a valid regulation." This case was closed in 2003.
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