Several years back, I was disturbed by the establishment of the national sex offenders registry. Not because of all future sex offenders who would be tracked, but because it also put all past sex offenders - essentially a retroactive punishment for crimes. An ex-post facto law which is forbidden by the Constitution. But the courts upheld it, and it is now established law. And advocates defend any unusual measures because sex offenders are much more likely to offend again.
Now, the Ohio legislature is taking this train of thought to another level of problematic law and ethics. They now passed a law which would require even accused sex offenders to be tracked on a registry which is publicly available, and would require public notification when they moved. This means a bitter ex-girlfriend could simply accuse a man of a sexual offense, and he would be marked by the scarlet A for at least six years. It means suddenly that "innocent until proven guilty" has become "guilty until proven innocent" for one kind of crime.
And how long until this is extended to other crimes?
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