11th Circuit: Child predators have a right to live with their kids

ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit partially upheld an Alabama federal judge’s decision to strike down part of the state’s law barring sex offenders from sharing a home with their own children. All parents have “a fundamental right to live with” their children, though the state has some authority to “regulate or even abrogate that right” if their laws are narrowly tailored. The law keeping sex-offender parents from living with their children is motivated by a “compelling reason” of protecting children’s safety, but “the Supreme Court and our history and tradition doesn’t tolerate this type of exception.” Alabama must show the lower court that the law is narrowly tailored enough to survive strict scrutiny review.