State court strikes down Lynn sex offender ordinance
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down Lynn’s housing restrictions for sex offenders, The Boston Globe reports. Lynn’s ordinance, which barred level II and III sex offenders from living near parks and schools, is similar to rules in 40 other Mass. communities.
The restrictions were enacted in 2011, and placed limits on where certain classes of convicted sex offenders could live, the Globe reports. But the Supreme Judicial Court struck them down, saying it’s no longer OK to banish a whole group of people from an area, like was done previously to Native Americans and Japanese-Americans.
“Today’s decision holds that state law seeks to protect public safety by monitoring offenders and making certain information about them available to the public,’’ the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, who brought the suit, told Boston.com in an email. “Local residency restrictions undermine that state system by forcing sex offenders into homelessness, which makes them harder to find and destabilizes rehabilitation.’’
The Globe reports that the court’s ruling also noted the measure, wich required a 1000 foot buffer around chools and park, would have affected 95 percent of Lynn residential properties.
Read the full story at the Globe.
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