In a groundbreaking ruling issued in 2017, federal district judge Richard Matsch declared that the Colorado statute requiring lifetime sex offender registry imposed cruel and unusual punishment on three convicted sex offenders whose cases the court heard in a bench trial. The civil rights case was litigated in the trial court by attorney Colorado attorney Alison Ruttenberg.
The Court found that the evidence showed that registered sex offenders “face a known, real, and serious threat of retaliation, violence, ostracism, shaming, and other unfair and irrational treatment from the public.” Judge Matsch concluded that these harms resulted “directly” from their status as registered sex offenders and was unconnected to any threat to pubic safety based on any “objective determination of their specific offenses, circumstances, and personal attributes.”
The district court issued a declaratory judgment holding that Coloado’s Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”), as applied to three plaintiffs, violated the Eighth Amendment. He further ruled, in the case of a fourth plaintiff, that SORA violated the Due Process Clause.
The Defendant, the Director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which maintains the sex offender registry, immediately filed an appeal.
ACLU Cooperating Attorneys Ty Gee and Adam Mueller defended Matsch’s ruling in the Tenth Circuit.
In 2020, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s judgment.
Media:
- "Colorado’s sex offender registry is unconstitutional, judge rules," Denverite, September 1, 2017
- "Federal judge rules Colorado sex offender register unconstitutional," Reuters, September 2, 2017
- "Judge Rules Sex-Offender Registry "Cruel and Unusual," Westword, September 1, 2017
- "Judge finds Colorado sex offender registry unconstitutional," Gazette, September 1, 2017
- "Federal judge declares Colorado sex offender registry unconstitutional for 3 men," 7 News, September 1, 2017
- "For Sex Offenders, Registration Is Punishment," Reason, September 6, 2017
- "Appeals court upholds Colorado sex offender registry law, reversing lower court," Colorado Politics, August 20, 2020
- "The Onerous Burdens of Sex Offender Registration Are Not Punishment, the 10th Circuit Rules. They Just Feel That Way," Reason, August 25, 2020
