Federal judge delays deadline to remove 30,000 from Michigan’s sex offender registry

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A federal judge has paused a July 21 deadline that would have resulted in thousands of names being removed from Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry, according to a recent court filing.
The ACLU of Michigan filed a lawsuit in 2022 on behalf of 10 convicted sex offenders, arguing some aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act were unconstitutional.
About 30,000 of the more than 40,000 names on the list would’ve been removed, according to the ruling. Those impacted would be people who were convicted before 2011.
Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert told News Channel 3 that he’s been watching the case as it made its way through the legal system.
“It bothers me,” Gilbert said. “We’ve passed laws. Now, sometimes we have to fix our laws. Sometimes they’re not correct, and we have to fix them because the important thing is to uphold our constitution.”