An interesting proposal was made by Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer. He proposed an ordinance that would make it illegal for sex offenders to live within 2,500 feet (a half of a kilometer) of any school, school bus stop, day care center, park or playground on Miami Beach. What's daring, and some feel clever, about this is that effectively keeps them from living anywhere in the Miami Beach community.
Many American communities have laws keeping sex offenders away from those institutions, but all are much closer in range than the 2,500 feet limit the mayor wants. About 80,000 people live in Miami Beach of which there are 31 registered sex offenders. But is this proposal legal or even fair? The mayor himself says that, "The intention of the law is to deal with serious offenders, to not have them living within the close proximity of potential victims."
But it may be unconstitutional to prevent a person from living in an entire community. In past court cases about restricting where "undesirables" may live the courts have consistently said that just because a person is considered unpleasant to a community you cannot pass a law that will exclude him from a community to force him to move to another one. I would think the neighboring counties would not be happy about their mayor's attempts to send them his sex offenders.
What do you think? In this free society, do we have the right to forbid citizens from living in a community?
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