What does a Biden/Harris presidency mean for the Anti-Registry Movement?

 WHAT A BIDEN/ HARRIS PRESIDENCY MEANS FOR RCs

These past four years have truly brought out the worst in American politics, and in many ways, that nightmare is over. However, a transition of power in the White House has meant little to us in the past and will likely not matter this time, either. 

First, consider the fact passing tough-on-crime laws have been a bipartisan effort. Democrat President Clinton signed Megan’s Law in 1996. Republican President Bush signed the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) in 2006. Democrat President Obama signed International Megan’s Law (IML) in 2016. While Republican President Trump never got the chance to sign such sweeping legislation tied to registration laws, he signed FOSTA-SESTA — the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. Both these laws have led to massive internet censorship and helped exacerbate the existing wave of human trafficking panic. (Of course, the 2010s were a decade of various sexual panics from campus assault scares to the #MeToo movement to the PizzaGate/ QAnon conspiracy theories.) And while people were touting Trump’s passage of the First Step Act, very few provisions benefited anyone convicted of anything but petty drug-offenses, as violent/ sex offenses were excluded from most beneficial provisions of the Act. 

This brings us to Democrat President Joe Biden. In Joe Biden’s first Presidential campaign in the 1980s, he ran on a tough-on-crime campaign and had been on the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1981, helping to pass tougher sanctions on drug offenses during Republican President Reagan’s “War on Drugs.” 

Biden has been instrumental in the creation of Sex Offense Legislation on the federal level. Joe Biden helped create the controversial Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994, which he largely wrote and shepherded through the legislative process as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The 1994 “Biden Crime Bill” as (Biden himself has called it as recently as spring 2020) created the Jacob Wetterling Act, mandatory minimums, and mass incarceration. Biden defended his passage of the bill during his campaign, claiming it decreased crime (a claim disputed by many criminologists.) 

Biden has referred to the controversial AWA as the “Biden-Hatch Bill.” (Orrin Hatch, R-UT, also was a supporter of the defunct Dateline TV series “To Catch a Predator” and the vigilante group Perverted-Justice.) During the passage of the AWA, Biden stated, “Plain and simple: This legislation will help save children's lives. Sexual predators must be tracked and parents have a right to know when these criminals are in their neighborhoods. We've done a lot to protect our kids against SOs - creating the NCMEC in 1984, enacting the Biden Crime Bill in 1994, and enacting the Amber Alert system in 2003 - but it is not enough. We must do more. The AWA will help prevent these low-life sexual predators from slipping through the cracks.”

Vice-President Kamala Harris is a former sex crimes prosecutor in CA. As DA, Harris co-sponsored a state law that would have banned SOs from social media sites. And as AG, she presided over “Operation Boo,” a mandatory curfew for all homeless SOs on Halloween. Conservative media attacked her for deciding against enforcing a 2000 foot residency restriction law for SOs on parole, which passed by popular vote as part of the state’s “Jessica’s Law. However, the AG office only decided against further enforcement of the restrictions due to In re Taylor, Docket # S206143 (CA Sup Ct, 3/2/2015), which ruled that San Diego Co’s restrictions were unconstitutional as applied. Harris knew that any further enforcement would lead to more lawsuits and decided to no longer enforce the law. 

On the one hand, the powers of the President and Vice-President to pass any laws by Executive Order. (An executive order is a type of written instruction that presidents use to work their will through the executive branch of government.) But Sex Offense Laws have been passed by legislation, not by Executive Orders. But if a federal Sex Offense bill is placed on a President’s desk, be it Trump’s, Biden’s, or whoever is elected in 2024 and beyond, I doubt it will get vetoed.

Part of the problem is Sex Offense Laws have the support of both sides of the political aisle. Conservatives fulfil their moralistic, tough-on-crime agendas, while liberal receive their “justice” for alleged and real crime victims and the belief they are protecting the vulnerable. On a related note, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has a long record of rejecting criminal justice reforms, and had to be pressured by both parties just to get the First Step Act on the floor. This is why registry reform is a hard sell. It is not impossible, since some harsh laws have been scaled back, although most reforms were merely responses to lawsuits. Still, the leader of this country has great influence over public policy, so two tough-on-crime candidates leading this nation could be bad news for registry reformists. 

The 2020 Presidential Candidates and their stance on the Sex Offense Registry

Now that the candidate pool on the Democratic side have narrowed to two people (well, three if you count Tulsi Gabbard but she's a long shot), it is time to see where everyone stands on this issue. However, it is becoming clear that Joe Biden will get the Democratic nomination, especially since establishment Dems (including nearly every former nominee) have all rallied behind Biden.

Why is this important to us? it is important because Presidents appoint federal justices. Right now, SCOTUS has a conservative majority. Who voted in favor of Smith v Doe and Kansas v Hendricks? The conservative justices. In regards to Kavanaugh, if you think him being accused of a sex offense is going to question these laws, Clarence Thomas had been accused by Anita Hill and he still voted in favor of both the registry AND civil commitment.

JOE BIDEN

I don't belive Joe Biden's a "centrist" candidate. Besides, Joe Biden gave us the 1994 Jacob Wetterling Act and the 2006 Adam Walsh Act. Need I say more?

https://votesmart.org/public-statement/196932/hatch-biden-bill-cracking-down-on-sexual-predators-to-be-signed-into-law-today#.Xl9HeqhKjIU

Hatch-Biden Bill Cracking Down on Sexual Predators to be Signed into Law Today
By: Joe Biden, Jr.
Date: July 27, 2006
Location: Washington, DC

Hatch-Biden Bill Cracking Down on Sexual Predators to be Signed into Law Today

WASHINGTON, DC - A hard-fought, bipartisan bill designed to crack down on sexual predators will become law later today in a White House signing ceremony. The "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act," sponsored by Senators Joe Biden (D-DE) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), will now make it easier for local law enforcement and parents to track sex offenders and to prevent repeat offenses.

"Plain and simple: This legislation will help save children's lives," said Senator Biden, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs. "Sexual predators must be tracked and parents have a right to know when these criminals are in their neighborhoods."

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that there are approximately 600,000 sex offenders nationwide, 20% of whom are not accounted for.

"We've done a lot to protect our kids against sex offenders - creating the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 1984, enacting the Biden Crime Bill in 1994, and enacting the Amber Alert system in 2003 - but it is not enough. We must do more. The Adam Walsh Act will help prevent these low-life sexual predators from slipping through the cracks."

Specifically, the Hatch-Biden bill tightens existing law by requiring sex offenders to register prior to release from prison. It also adds the "use of the Internet to facilitate or commit a crime against a minor" as an offense that triggers registration.

In addition, child predators will be required to periodically check in personally with the authorities and update their photographs so law enforcement and parents will know what they look like now. And if a registered sex offender fails to comply with any of the law's requirements, he or she faces up to 10 years in prison.

The Adam Walsh Act also fully integrates and expands existing state registration systems so that information will be shared instantly and seamlessly among them.

"States such as Delaware and Florida have worked hard to build comprehensive and effective statewide registration systems," said Senator Biden. "But there are other states that are not as advanced - whose systems are not as sophisticated. We now seek to fully integrate and expand those networks so that communities nationwide will be warned when high-risk offenders come to live among them," said Biden. Senator Biden is the author of the landmark 1994 crime bill that helped create the first state programs to track and register convicted child molesters. Additionally, he is an original member of the bipartisan Senate Caucus on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children which was founded last year. This panel is charged with helping to develop legislation on behalf of missing, exploited, and runaway children, and to work with both national and local child advocacy organizations.

DONALD TRUMP

Any hope conservatives had that Trump would "drain" the Corrections Swamp ended when he signed FOSTA/ SESTA under the guise of preventing human trafficking. Trump has used the Sex Trafficking Moral Panic as a way to win votes.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-made-priority-combat-heinous-crime-human-trafficking/

"ERADICATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING: President Trump has made it a priority to leverage every resource of the Federal Government to end the scourge of human trafficking."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/anti-human-trafficking-groups-boycotting-ivanka-trumps-white/story?id=68615924

"Human trafficking is worse than it ever has been before," Trump said. "And that's because of the internet."

He outlined initiatives his administration has done thus far, including the Department of Justice shutting down certain websites found to be associated with groups accused of running human trafficking rings.

He added, “My administration is fighting these monsters, persecuting and prosecuting them.”

For what it's worth, Trump and the Repubs haven't renewed the controversial VAWA.

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/01/24/its-a-real-loss-for-survivors-domestic-violence-law-stalled-in-u-s-senate/

"For decades, the Violence Against Women Act was an issue that could transcend partisan politics on Capitol Hill. Not anymore."

And remember when Trump called Ben Carson a Child Molester?

https://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/trump-carson-pathological-215816

"It's in the book that he's got a pathological temper," he said. "That's a big problem because you don't cure that ... as an example: child molesting. You don't cure these people. You don't cure a child molester. There's no cure for it. Pathological, there's no cure for that."

BERNIE SANDERS

Bernie Sanders had an early lead in the primaries but is fading fast. It is too bad because out of the major political candidates, Sanders is the most open to criminal justice reforms. He took criticism for saying prisoners should have the right to vote. He also took criticism for suggesting a registry of corrupt cops and reducing the prison population. He has consistently voted against the PATRIOT Act and opposes the death penalty. He only reluctantly voted for the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill because it included the VAWA, while trying to pass amendments to stop the bad parts of the bill from passing. He also opposed the Iraq War.

Bernie's full stance on criminal justice issues is HERE.

BOTTOM LINE--

Biden and Trump are bad for registered persons. If Bernie isn't in the election come November, I'll once again cast my vote for a Third Party candidate. Hell, I may even write myself for President.