11th Circuit says Alabama can’t keep child sex offender from living with son

The 11th Circuit ruled Tuesday that Alabama cannot bar Bruce Henry, convicted in 2013 of possessing child sexual abuse material, from living with his son, finding the state's 2011 sex offender registration law fails strict scrutiny. Judge Robin Rosenbaum wrote that the law's permanent, no-exceptions restriction is not narrowly tailored, since 'the sole fact of a conviction' does not reliably predict whether a parent will harm their own child.

Henry served nearly five years in prison, completed treatment, and violated supervised release once in 2019 by viewing pornography; a federal judge extended his supervision rather than revoke it. The law barred him from living with his son from the boy's 2021 birth onward.

The ruling follows a July en banc decision, also authored by Rosenbaum, holding that parents with child sex convictions retain a fundamental right to live with their children, over a dissent from Chief Judge William Pryor arguing the right should be defined narrowly and denied.

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