PORTLAND, Maine - A Maine judge must give further consideration to whether a man's rights were violated by legislative action requiring him to be placed on the state sex offender registry retroactively.
The state supreme court ruled Tuesday in the case of a man who served 72 hours in jail in 2003 after pleading guilty to possession of sexually explicit materials.
At the time, the conviction didn't require him to be on the sex offender registry. But that changed later that year when lawmakers updated the list of crimes mandating placement on the registry.
On Tuesday, the supreme court vacated a judge's decision that rejected Doe's lawsuit. Justices said more information is needed to reach a conclusion on his stand-alone claim that lawmakers illegally circumvented the judicial process to impose extra punishment.