Homeless Sex Offenders in Georgia: At Sex Crimes, Corey Rayburn Young posts on yesterday's decision from the Georgia Supreme Court that a strict sex offender law was unconstitutional because it failed to tell homeless offenders how to comply with the new law. The law was designed to keep sex offenders away from children by monitoring how close they live to schools, parks and other spots where children gather. Critics of the law argued it was unconstitutional because it unfairly subjected offenders to a life sentence if they were homeless and could not register a home address. Young agrees with the verdict, but opines that "a persuasive case could have been made that a homeless sex offender could have been offered compliance through some alternative reporting requirement (or simply excused from the address change requirement). It did not necessarily follow that the offender be excused from all registration requirements."

Another Take on Calabresi's Editorial: Today's News Scan gives a summary of Professor Steven Calabresi's op-ed on the Obama presidency, an editorial that Doug Berman has also commented on over at Sentencing Law and Policy. While we believe Professor Calabresi, a co-founder of the Federalist Society, raises legitimate concerns in his article, Berman believes the "wacky" op-ed takes "the anti-Obama rhetoric up a notch." He posts that while he expected similar rhetoric from McCain and Giuliani, he is "very disappointed to see this kind of silly over-the-top rhetoric coming from law professors."

Law Review Articles on Sentencing: Hat tip to Berman for pointing out two new articles on sentencing in the October 2008 issue of the William & Mary Law Review. For those interested in AEDPA, Giovanna Shay & Christopher Lasch have an article titled "Initiating a New Constitutional Dialogue: The Increased Importance Under AEDPA of Seeking Certiorari from Judgments of State Courts." And, David C. Hall discusses the Sixth Amendment after Booker, Rita and Gall with his Note "Death by a Thousand Cases: After Booker, Rita, and Gall, the Guidelines Still Violate the Sixth Amendment."