- Judge criticizes state for flouting the U.S. Constitution
- Other rulings against Tennessee law cited
- Judge also cites Michigan ruling
Tennessee may not retroactively apply its registration law, according to a federal judge who ordered that eight people be removed from the registry.
“Tennessee officials continue to flout the Constitution’s guarantees,” U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger wrote in her ruling on December 3, 2021. “The federal district courts of this state have repeatedly concluded that the same analysis applies … to Tennessee’s own, very similar scheme and policies. Tennessee officials have continued to impose the state’s repeatedly-held-to-be-unlawful policy on other, similarly situated individuals” despite rulings, she said.
Governments are prohibited from giving more punishment for a crime that was committed previously under the Ex Post Facto of the U.S. Constitution clause, according to The Associated Press.
Trauger also cited an April ruling where another federal judge in the Middle District of Tennessee ruled that two men should be removed from the sex offender registry. The judge determined enforcing laws created after the committed crimes were unconstitutional.
Trauger also mentioned that in 2016, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against retroactive implementation of a sex offender law in Michigan.