A second tRUMP presidency is bad news for Registered Persons.
Some folks were lulled into the belief a Donald Trump presidency is good for us based on him signing the First Step Act, an act that helped expand good time for federal prisoners taking treatment/rehab courses, but SOs were excluded from the benefits of the bill, except a single offense but I'm sure that was merely an oversight they may add to the exclusion list once the bill is up for reauthorization. An equally fallacious argument is because Trump is a convicted felon & held to be liable for rape (in a civil, not criminal court), Trump will be sympathetic to our cause. But SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, yet has consistently voted in favor of the state in challenges to registry laws. Trump said in a July 2024 rally that you can’t “teach a criminal not to be a criminal.” Back in 2015, Trump likened Ben Carson to an SO during a rally, stating, “If you’re pathological, there’s no cure for that, folks. There’s no cure for that… If you’re a child molester, a sick puppy, you’re a child molester, there’s no cure for that. There’s only one cure, we don’t want to talk about that cure. That’s the ultimate cure. Well, there’s death, and there’s the other thing. But if you’re a child molester, there’s no cure, they can’t stop you. Pathological, there’s no cure."
But the thing that concerns me deeply is that Trump plans on implementing the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. P2025's chapter on reforming the DOJ mostly covers stuff directly related to ending the investigations into Trump’s criminal activities while in office & the J6 insurrectionists. BUT, this passage disturbs me: “Enforce the death penalty where appropriate & applicable. Capital punishment is a sensitive matter, as it should be, but the current crime wave makes deterrence vital at the federal, state, & local levels. However, providing this punishment without ever enforcing it provides justice neither for the victims’ families nor for the defendant. The next conservative Administration should therefore do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row. It should also pursue the death penalty for applicable crimes—particularly heinous crimes involving violence & sexual abuse of children—until Congress says otherwise through legislation.”–p.554
It sounds to me like they want to allow death penalty for ALL cases UNLESS Congress EXPLICITLY states this crime should not be punishable by death. No doubt this was thrown into the mix after FL Gov. Ron DeathSantis pushed to challenge Kennedy v Louisiana 554 US 407 (2008), which stated execution for non-murder offenses was unconstitutional, by signing a law in FL to execute folks convicted of sex offenses against those under age 13. TN passed a similar statute earlier this year & other states like MO & ID considered it. While Trump has claimed he “knows nothing” about P2025, his Agenda47 is reposting numerous suggestions from P2025 & over 200 Trump staffers worked on P2025. The Heritage Foundation sponsored the RNC. In Aug 2024, the Trump campaign announced that Trump will seek the death penalty for “child rapists & child traffickers.”
Trump never got the chance to sign such sweeping legislation tied to SOR laws, he signed FOSTA-SESTA — the Allow States & Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act & Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, an internet censorship bill. Both these laws have led to massive internet censorship & helped exacerbate the existing wave of human trafficking panic. P2025 seeks to “Ensure that (the DOJ) is agile enough to devote sufficient resources and attention to other emerging threats that involve federal interests such as increases in sextortion, ransomware, and the continued proliferation of CP.” P2025 also wants to outlaw ALL porn. “Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators & public librarians who purvey it should be classed as RSOs. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”–p.5
One other issue of concern—vigilante groups that harass RPs &/or engage in online entrapment operations are promoting right-wing conspiracies. Recently, the Millersville PD (in TN) worked with an online vigilante group “Veterans for Child Rescue”; the asst. chief Shawn Taylor promoted debunked conspiracies like Pizzagate (the false claim a Pizza shop in DC tied to Clinton’s campaign mgr. was a front for human trafficking). An arrestee was even sent to a jail “where it was likely that he might not come out alive.” Taylor is still on the force. Police are largely turning a blind eye to crimes against RPs. A Trump win may encourage more vigilante activity & may be sanctioned by police. Trump also told rally-goers in July he would grant immunity to police in all actions, which could lead to cops violating our rights during compliance checks or at the registration office.
Trump’s VP pick JD Vance has only been a US Senator since 2022 & none of his sponsored bills impact RPs; he has yet to give his stance on criminal justice issues since media attention is focused on his weird, authoritarian statements, but i doubt he'll do us any favors, either.
WHY IT MATTERS WHO WON: The President may not influence SO laws directly, but they can pass 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.) SO Laws have always been passed by legislation, not by Executive Order. If a federal SO bill is placed on the desk of Trump, I doubt it would get vetoed.
The Presidential election still matters to us in one key matter—the President selects SCOTUS justices. In my article following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I noted that liberal justices like RGB, Sotomayor, & Kagan have voted against SO law expansion, while conservative justices like Gorsuch, Thomas, & Alito have consistently voted in favor of stricter penalties for us. Repubs accused Justice Katanji Brown-Jackson of being “soft on SOs.” Chief Justice Roberts was the state’s attorney in the 2003 Smith v. Doe, where he successfully argued the SOR was NOT punishment. We now have a 6-3 conservative supermajority, which ends any hope of revisiting that terrible ruling anytime soon.
With tRUMP reclaiming this power, we can be assured that if Alito and Thomas are ousted, they will merely be replaced with equally ultra-conservative justices, and if any of the three remaining liberal justices are ousted, the conservative supermajority will last for our lifetimes. All chances of overturning Smith v Doe is lost.
SO 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 & real crime victims & the belief they are protecting the vulnerable. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has a long record of rejecting criminal justice reforms, & 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.
However, a tRUMP administration all but kills what little momentum we ever had and puts us all in danger of death.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/6382/text
In the meantime, this is the next potentially harmful bill on the federal level. H. R. 6382. It contains three provisions that are harmful to some of us:
1. Submit a list of persons convicted of certain offenses to the US Attorney General for potential federal charges. )The term ‘‘sexually dangerous person’’ means a person suffering from a serious mental illness, abnormality, or disorder, as a result of which the individual would have serious difficulty in refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation., under the AWA, i.e., those who would be eligible for civil commitment. This can be rather vague at times.)
2. These persons would be ineligible for Medicare Parts A and B unless they're in civil commitment.
3. More broadly, the registry info would be enhanced to include "Information about any relevant court case.'' I'm not entirely sure if it is limited only to the conviction or just sex offense accsations or any potential charge.
As a final note, I'd like to add the fact that vigilante groups I have monitored and wrote about for years are tRUMP supporters, and his reelection has emboldened these vigilantes even more.
Perhaps our future efforts should focus on helping Registrants survive in a country that has made it all but fully legal to use us for target practice.
