Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt asked the state’s high court Friday to reconsider a series of opinions issued last month that reached diverging conclusions on whether mandatory registration by sex offenders and violent offenders meets the legal definition of a punishment.
On April 22, the Kansas Supreme Court made five rulings on cases challenging the Kansas Offender Registration Act. In four of those rulings, the court determined registration is a punishment and therefore can’t be applied retroactively under the U.S. Constitution.