Supreme Court of California

In this consolidated habeas corpus proceeding, petitioners are registered sex offenders on active parole in San Diego County against whom Penal Code section 3003.5(b), a sex offender residency restriction known as Jessica's Law, was enforced. Petitioners allege that the residency restrictions, as applied to them, are unconstitutional. The trial court found that the mandatory residency restrictions were unconstitutional as applied to all registered sex offenders on parole in San Diego County, and enjoined enforcement of the statute in the county. The Court of Appeal affirmed. The judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed, where: 1) blanket enforcement of the residency restrictions against these parolees has infringed on their liberty and privacy interests while bearing no rational relationship to advancing the state's legitimate goal of protecting children from sexual predators, and has violated their basic constitutional right to be free of unreasonable, arbitrary, and oppressive official action; and 2) the California Department of Corrections still retains the authority to impose special restrictions on registered sex offenders in the form of parole conditions, including residency restrictions that may be more or less restrictive than those found in section 3003.5(b), so long as they are supported by the particularized circumstances of each parolee.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/02/2015
• Published 03/02/2015

Judges

• Baxter

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel