Sex Offenders Can Be Kept From Parks

Story >

Sex Offenders Can Be Kept From Parks

Special Report - October 4, 2007
In an opinion issued on October 2nd, the N.C. Court of Appeals upheld the right of a local town to ban registered sex offenders from public parks. David Standley, a convicted sex offender, sued the Town of Woodfin in Western North Carolina challenging a town ordinance passed in 2005 that prohibits registered sex offenders from entering any public park in the town. He argued that the ordinance violated his fundamental right to travel through public spaces and to travel about and within the state, which he claimed is protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Two of the three Appeals Court judges, Judge Rick Elmore and Judge John Tyson, ruling on the case agreed that: “the right to enter parks is not encompassed by either the fundamental right of travel or the right to intrastate travel.” They concluded that because the ordinance did not impair Standley’s daily functions, it did not infringe upon his right to due process under the Constitution. He was free to travel and to enjoy other public spaces in the town, just not the public parks. The Court also found that: “By restricting only registered sex offenders from entering public parks, which are frequented by children and other citizens, the ordinance promotes the general welfare and safety of Woodfin's citizens, which is a legitimate government purpose.” Its intent was protective, not punitive.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Martha Geer argued that state and federal legislation adopted for the purpose of regulating registered sex offenders constitutes such a complete regulatory scheme that it leaves no room for further local regulation. She argued that allowing Woodfin to regulate registered sex offenders would lead to a rash of other municipalities adopting local ordinances, running the risk of disparate treatment of registered sex offenders from municipality to municipality or county to county.