Sex offenders lose challenge to residency rules

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by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
February 1, 2010

(02-01) 16:48 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A state law prohibiting convicted sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park applies to thousands of inmates who were imprisoned before the November 2006 measure took effect but were paroled afterward, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The 5-2 decision was the court's first look at the residency restriction that was the key provision of Proposition 83, which passed with a 70 percent majority. The justices left some important questions unanswered, including whether the restriction is constitutional in a city such as San Francisco, where virtually all housing is within the 2,000-foot buffer zone.

Also unresolved is whether the law applies to sex offenders released from prison before November 2006, who make up most of the state's 65,000 registered sex offenders. The Supreme Court questioned, but did not decide, whether authorities could require those offenders to move from a home within the 2,000-foot buffer zone.

The court ruled in the state's favor on the issue it addressed: whether Prop. 83 covers all prisoners paroled after the measure passed, or only those who committed sex crimes after November 2006. State officials said when the case was argued in November that about 6,800 registered sex offenders were on parole in California.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/01/BANB1BR0KU.DTL