Two sex offenders lost their bid to add an as-applied claim to their lawsuit challenging a Florida county ordinance restricting offenders from living near schools, in a ruling by the Eleventh Circuit Wednesday.
The Miami-Dade County, Fla., ordinance limits sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet from a school, and it applies retroactively to offenders convicted before its enactment in 2005.
Plaintiffs argued the ordinance was unconstitutional because it amounted to an “impermissible retroactive criminal punishment,” according to the lawsuit. Both plaintiffs are homeless.
The plaintiffs pursued a facial challenge to the ordinance until the last day of trial, when ...