Sex offenders required by a new federal law to carry marked passports are hoping a Wednesday court hearing will suspend the regulation. The law, signed by President Barack Obama last month, is a violation of their constitutional rights, they say.
A federal judge in Oakland, California could potentially block the International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking as requested by California Reform Sex Offender Laws, a civil rights group.
Just six weeks old, the law requires the State Department to mark the passports of certain sex offenders.The plaintiffs claim that the law violates the US Constitution's First Amendment, forcing them to divulge information that will "publicly stigmatize a disfavored minority group using a document foundational to citizenship," the lawsuit states.
The
lawsuit also alleges that because passports are a vital form of identification abroad,
a unique symbol that identifies sex offenders could "invite significant risk of harm to themselves, their families, and other with whom they may be traveling."
The intention of International Megan's Law is to prevent child trafficking and exploitation abroad, an expansion of Megan's Law, a law passed by Congress in 1996 to mandate authorities publicly disclose information about convicted sex offenders. The new law was sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) after a meeting with a delegation of Thai officials about human trafficking, the Wall Street Journal
reported.
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