The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that it is not necessarily a requirement that all sex offenders who move out of state update their registration with where they are living. The recent decision stemmed from a case involving a Missouri man who was previously convicted of a sex crime, and then sentence to serve jail time after failing to update the national sex offender registry when he moved to another state.

In that case, the former Missouri man was sentenced to serve 18 months in jail for not updating the registry. However, the man maintained that he did not break any laws, and ended up suing, claiming that he shouldn't have had to update the registry since the rules regarding relocation had not been put into law when he was convicted of the original sex crime in 2001.

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which is also commonly known as the Adam Walsh act, went into law in 2006. This act created a national sex offender registry, and requires those convicted of a sex offense to register information regarding where they live.

In terms of location, the act also requires people to update the registry with their new address within three days after moving to another state.

When the man first sued, a U.S. Court of Appeals threw out his lawsuit. However, in a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned that decision.

In general, while this ruling was good news for the former Missouri man, the entire ordeal shows the stigma and regulations that typically tend to follow those convicted of sex crimes for the rest of their lives.

Source: KSPR, "Under Supreme Court Ruling, Some Sex Offenders May Not Have to Register on National List," Mary Moloney, Jan. 24, 2012