The Denver Post: It’d be a shame if Colorado is forced to stop tracking the home addresses of sex offenders because a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the registry law violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment.

Colorado’s sex offender registry, like those in every other state, presents critical public information in a usable format that can make communities safer. We hope Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman prevails in her appeal of the ruling.

Colorado requires those convicted of certain sex offenses, excluding juveniles or misdemeanor convictions, to register their current home address with the state.

That information, coupled with public court records of convictions, creates an online registry that allows people to search geographical areas for sex offenders living nearby and learn about their crimes.

We fail to see how that equates to cruel and unusual punishment.

However, the registry can make the lives of those on the registry extremely difficult when coupled with misguided laws at the local level that govern where those on the registry can live and with overly aggressive community members who use the information in a punitive way.

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