Sex Offender Registration

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Shane Kitterman v. City of Belleville

Case No.: 20-1875

Officials: Easterbrook, Ripple, and Wood, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sex Offender Registration

Shane Kitterman has been a frequent filer in both the federal and state courts of Illinois. His litigation campaign is in response to the insistence by Illinois authorities that he is required to register as a sex offender. Kitterman believes that this obligation has expired. He filed the present lawsuit in federal court, relying on 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against several defendants from the Belleville (Illinois) Police Department (BPD), the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department, and the Illinois State Police (ISP). In it, he alleged that the authorities’ continued enforcement of registration duties violated his constitutional rights.

The district court dismissed Kitterman’s complaint for failure to state a claim. See F ED. R. C IV. P. 12(b)(6). The Seventh Circuit ruled that nothing in federal law that calls into question Kitterman’s obligation to register as a sex offender under Illinois law, and thus agrees with the district court that Kitterman’s case is without merit insofar as he thought he could prove federal constitutional violations by showing only that the state officials misapplied state law.

Affirmed.

Decided 05/04/23

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