Dear President Obama,
Please veto H.R. 515, "International Megan's Law to
Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced
Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders", when it reaches your desk.
In every era, there are groups upon which the broader public
heaps its particular scorn. Sex offenders are not a racial, ethnic, or
religious group; they are united only by their crime. And yet despite their
crimes, they remain American citizens who are still deserving of basic freedoms
and the second chance offered all prisoners at the conclusion of their
sentence.
Modern America has chosen sex offenders--and who could be
more deserving?--as one of the targets of this era, but our policy is often
reactionary and driven more by fear than good sense. Recidivism rates of sex
offenders are exceedingly low, but we act as if they were high. And the
"sex tourism" threat this bill purports to end is something the State
Department already has policies in place to deal with. In short, there is no
policy-related need for this bill.
Also, due to the baby-and-bathwater nature of many modern
sex laws, some "sex offenders" are teenagers who sent each other nude
pictures, or statutory rapists who were genuinely unaware of their partner's
age, or other innocent people tarred for life with the "sex offender"
brush even when it contravenes all logic and good sense.
The bipartisan legislative consensus behind this law appears
to be driven not by serious consideration of policy, but by carrot-and-stick
incentives: no one wants to be seen being soft on sex offenders, and everyone
wants to say that they 'kept our communities safer' by striking another blow
against the evils of sex offenders. This is an awful way to make any law.
Mr. President, threats to everyone's liberty do not walk up
to the front door and introduce themselves as such. They are, without
exception, cloaked in reasonable language to deal with nebulous dangers. And in
the long term, they set precedents--this would be the first-ever special
designation of an American citizen on a passport--that could one day be turned
against broader and less deserving sections of the American people. Imagine
your successor building on this law to require a special designation for Muslims,
for example, or for political dissidents. This policy is not worth that risk.
Please veto H.R. 515.
