Orange County DA to Appeal Unlawful Ruling of Sex Offender Ban

A small victory for advocates of reforming sex offender laws may be short lived.

The California Court of Appeal ruled on Jan. 10 that an Orange County ordinance banning sex offenders from parks and beaches is unlawful, yet the Orange County DA Tony Rackauckas will not concede. He has decided to appeal the decision of the California Court of Appeal to the California Supreme Court. The state Surpreme Court should decide within 90 days whether or not to take the case.

"It is foolish for the Office of the Orange County District Attorney to request further review of the county ordinance," Janice Bellucci, president of California Reform Sex Offender Laws, said in a press release Tuesday. "After losing two court battles, this is a waste of taxpayer funding which could be better spent on addressing methods that increase public safety rather than provide the public with a false sense of security."

This ordinance is one of the harshest in the state for sex offenders, and Bellucci argues that this kind of ban, like most sex offender laws, is ineffective and does not provide the protection it suggests.

ReasonTV reported on this ban when it was first enacted in 2011. Watch below to find out more about the ban and "How Sex Offender Registries Fail Us":