Today the Montana federal district court suspended a requirement that a man convicted of having consensual gay sex register as sex offender.
While the Supreme Court found that so-called “sodomy” laws were unconstitutional in 2003, and Montana formally repealed its sodomy law in 2013, Montana still required people with sodomy convictions to register as sex offenders if they were convicted in another state that still requires registration. Idaho, South Carolina, and Mississippi still require sex offender registration for people convicted under their sodomy laws.
Randall Menges was convicted in Idaho of having consensual gay sex back in 1993. After he moved to Montana, Montana required him to register as a sex offender.
The federal court affirmed that “having consensual intimate sexual contact with a person of the same-sex does not render someone a public safety threat to the community. It does not increase the risk that our State’s children or other vulnerable groups will be victimized, and law enforcement has no valid interest in keeping track of such persons whereabouts. And, while it can be undoubtedly said that Montana’s sexual offender registration statutes generally serve compelling governmental interests, they are not narrowly tailored to serve those interests to the extent they pull Menges within their grasp.”
“I’m grateful to the court for putting an end to my nightmare,” said Randall Menges. “It should not have required a lawsuit to enforce the Supreme Court’s command from 18 years ago, but I’m happy that it’s over.”
The decision got picked up in dozens of national and international publications, including the New York Times, the Daily Mail, the Advocate, and the Associated Press.