Signs of Hope: Litigating Housing Banishment Laws - Adele Nicholas

Since state legislatures and municipalities began passing residential exclusion laws in the 1990s, social scientists have studied whether such laws are effective at their stated aim of reducing rates of recidivistic sexual offending. This research has resoundingly concluded that not only do such laws fail to make any one safer, but they actually make communities less safe by increasing homelessness, unemployment, and social isolation. Nonetheless, many courts have still deferred to legislators who enact these discredited policies.
But there is reason to believe that the tide is turning. Courts that once rejected or ignored the evidence are taking a more searching look at the real motives for residential banishment laws and their real effects on the families that are subject to them.
This presentation will look at several recent court decisions that give us reason to hope and suggest ways that our movement can build on the evidence to continue our fight to reform these harmful laws.
Adele Nicholas is the executive director of Illinois Voices for Reform and a civil rights attorney based in Chicago. Since 2016, she has been litigating constitutional challenges to the harmful, permanent punishments, including housing banishment laws and registration schemes, that apply to persons who have been convicted of sexual offenses.
NARSOL is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization exclusively dedicated to defending the constitutional liberties of registered citizens and their families.NARSOL opposes dehumanizing registries and works to eliminate discrimination, banishment, and vigilantism against persons accused or convicted of sexual offenses through the use of impact litigation, public education, legislative advocacy, and media outreach in order to reintegrate and reconcile affected individuals and restore their constitutional rights.
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