Under New York state law, thousands of people on the state sex-offender registry aren’’t allowed to step — let alone live or work — within 1,000 feet of school grounds. In a dense area like New York City, where the 52-year-old has lived most of his life, it’s virtually impossible to comply with the restriction: It applies to some 85 percent of residential areas in the city. In Manhattan, it’s 95 percent. The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal class action lawsuit on Tuesday, on behalf of four anonymous plaintiffs, seeking to overturn the law imposing what it calls the “banishment zone,” New York Focus reports. Known as the Sexual Assault Reform Act, or SARA, the law went into effect almost 25 years ago, as part of the state legislature’s response to the sex offender panic that had swept the nation.
The law bans thousands of people on the state sex offense registry from entering school zones. Its language is sweeping, applying to some whose offenses weren’t sexual. According to the lawsuit, one plaintiff called MG in the lawsuit confronted a group of kids during an intoxicated mental breakdown and grabbed one of them, landing him kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment convictions — two broadly defined, non-sexual offenses that can put someone on the registry. NYCLU argue that the law is “vague, expansive, and unnecessary,” violating the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process and equal protection under the law. If the suit prevails, it would leave New York’s sex offense registry intact, but eliminate the 1,000-foot rule for schools. “Individuals subject to SARA have no idea where they can walk, commute, or live,” the nyclu charges in its federal lawsuit, “without fear of reincarceration.”