Is Megan's Law Constitutional or Even Effective?

Politics are an interesting phenomenon. A topic that has never been an issue before can all of the sudden be brought into the spotlight that is our political system. Megan's Law was such an issue. In the mid 1990's, a girl was abducted and raped by a convicted sex offender that had moved into the neighborhood. People were horrified, how could a sex offender move into the community without anyone knowing about it? The families lobbied their state to get a law passed that would make it mandatory for sex offenders to register with local police, and then when they moved into a community, the citizens would be notified. This law was given the title "Megan's Law" named after the girl who was abducted. The issue has since gone to a national level, and now the federal government is requiring all fifty states to enact some type of legislation that deals with Megan's law (Menedez, 251). But is registration constitutional? The Supreme Court isn't so sure, and other courts have yet to agree on the subject. In today's paper, we will examine the laws of registration and notification of sex offenders, and their constitutionality. It is the contention of this paper that having sex offender's register and then having communities notified of their presence is an additional punishment that only convicted sex offenders must face, and that the law should be struck down.