Judge won't block predator law
But he orders 14 days' notice if sex offender is to be forced from home.
By Hudson Sangree - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, November 18, 2006

A federal judge on Friday refused to block the enforcement of California's new sexual predator law but granted a degree of protection to one man who feared authorities might evict him from his home.

In Sacramento, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ordered government lawyers to give the court 14 days' notice if they planned to force a registered sex offender, known only as John Doe, to move from his residence.

The man has sued state and local officials, saying enforcement of Proposition 83 would strip him of his constitutional rights.

Approved by voters last week, the measure prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park. Thousands of sex offenders could be forced to relocate if the law were to be applied retroactively.

Lawyers representing the state and the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office told the judge they had no plans to enforce the law against those convicted before the measure took effect Nov. 8.

"The problem is, I believe you," Karlton told the government lawyers.

But the judge said he worried that law enforcement officials could suddenly change their plans to enforce the law.

"Tomorrow it may not be your position again," he told the attorneys.

Karlton refused to grant the temporary restraining order requested by attorney Scott Wippert but scheduled a Dec. 18 hearing to consider a preliminary injunction against the law.

Karlton did not consider a separate provision Friday that requires sex offenders to be monitored for life by a global positioning system.

Proposition 83 was called Jessica's Law after 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was killed by a convicted sex offender last year in Florida.

Seventy percent of voters supported the ballot measure.

Though just 10 days old, the new law has faced at least two legal challenges in Northern California and a third in Southern California.

In San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that the 2,000-foot buffer zone provision may be unconstitutional.

She issued a temporary restraining order until Nov. 27, when a hearing is scheduled.

A federal judge in Los Angeles also is considering a separate legal challenge to the law from a sex offender in Ventura County.

Plaintiff's lawyers hope the federal judges will resolve fears about how the law could be applied to sex offenders.

"The law is clearly ambiguous, and we need it to be clarified," Wippert said after Karlton's ruling.