The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of the sex offender registry in Florida. The Court simultaneously upheld another law that requires sex offenders released from prison to submit DNA samples to law enforcement.

The Florida laws are fairly typical of "Megan's Laws" which have been enacted across the country in the last decade. The laws were prompted after 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender who was living in her New Jersey neighborhood.

The plaintiffs in the case were a group of convicted sex offenders living in Florida, who challenged the law on the basis that it violated their federal constitutional rights. The federal court, however, disagreed:

In 2003, the US Supreme Court ruled that online databases allowing public access to sex offender registries were legal, so the Appeals Court decision today holding the registration itself legal is hardly surprising. The 2003 case, however, was decided on procedural due process grounds, whereas the latest challenge was based on substantive due process grounds, alleging essentially that sex offender registries denied the plaintiffs' fundamental rights.