California sex offender registry ruling [CA SC] News
California sex offender registry ruling [CA SC]

The People v. Sorden, Supreme Court of California, June 23, 2005 [ruling that forgetting to register for Megan's Law because of stress is an insufficient excuse]. Excerpt:

We now hold that the willfulness element of the offense may be negated by evidence that an involuntary condition—physical or mental, temporary or permanent—deprived a defendant of actual knowledge of his or her duty to register. Only the most disabling of conditions, we emphasize, would qualify under the standard we announce today. Severe Alzheimer's disease is one example that comes to mind; general amnesia induced by severe trauma is another. Defendant's claimed depression clearly did not satisfy this standard. Defendant knew of his obligation to register and, had he taken it to heart, he could have managed to discharge it.

Read the full text of the opinion here [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

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First Chief Justice of the United States commissioned

On September 26, 1789, John Jay was commissioned as the first Chief Justice of the United States following his confirmation by the Senate.