Group joins sex offender lawsuit

A national group focused on sex abuse treatment and prevention has joined a lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an Iowa law that requires sex offenders to live 2,000 feet from schools and child care centers. The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers filed a motion Thursday asking the nation's highest court to consider a lawsuit challenging the legality of the residency restriction. [...]

Last month, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of more than a dozen sex offenders, filed motions asking the Supreme Court to find the law unconstitutional. Representatives from ATSA say the Iowa case is the first critical test of residency laws now being used in some form in as many as 14 states. "This case has national significance because it could help set the tone for what states can and will do in the future," said Jill Levenson, an ATSA board member and professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. "From a practical standpoint, there are concerns about the feasibility of these kinds of laws in the long run because people have to live somewhere," said Levenson, who has researched sex offender policies.

Iowa adopted the residency restriction in 2002, joining Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma as states with a 2,000-foot boundary around schools and child care centers. The ICLU sued immediately, arguing the restriction violated constitutional rights and would have the effect of banishing offenders from many cities and towns. [...] ATSA says laws limiting where sex offenders can live do more harm than good.

source: Article 'Group joins sex offender lawsuit'; desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051106/NEWS01/511060373/1001/NEWS; The Des Moines Register (Associated Press); 6 November 2005