NJ Town Considers Extensive Sex-Offender Ban
A New Jersey municipality is considering banning high-risk sex offenders from living anywhere within the town.
The town council is expected to vote on the measure on Wednesday, the New York Times reports.
Most communities that pass sex-offender laws bar them from living close to schools and child-care centers. Dyersville, Iowa, has gone further, though. Its law barring any sex offender over the age of 21 from living there may be the toughest in the nation.
The Iowa law has not been challenged in court. Challenges have overturned three New Jersey laws that are less restrictive. Courts in those cases relied in part on state laws that already regulate where sex offenders may live.
The American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit group founded by Pat Robertson, is representing one of the three New Jersey communities on appeal. The group’s chief counsel, Jay Sekulow, told the Times a total ban could pose even greater legal problems.
