Judge rejects ACLU challenge to Delaware’s sex offender GPS monitoring

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

A Delaware judge has rejected the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to a state law requiring GPS monitoring of certain convicted sex offenders who have been released from custody and are on probation.

The judge on Friday granted summary judgment to the state corrections commissioner.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of three high-risk sex offenders, including a rapist and a female accomplice to rape and sodomy. They complained that wearing GPS monitors was embarrassing, sometimes painful and an invasion of privacy.

The ACLU argued that if monitoring is not punitive, it must be applied only on a case-by-case basis, and that if it is, it could not be applied retroactively.

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The Delaware Supreme Court previously ruled that such GPS monitoring was not punitive and could therefore be applied retroactively.

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