Lawmakers Consider Ban On Sex Offender Residency Restrictions

New Hampshire lawmakers are considering whether to bar municipalities from limiting where the state's more than 2,500 registered sex offenders can live after recent court rulings said the restrictions are unconstitutional.  
 
 The House passed a proposed ban by a vote of 231-97 in February.
 
The bill now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it faces an uphill battle.  
 
The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union successfully challenged sex offender residency restrictions first in Dover, then in Franklin.  
 
In the most recent ruling in 2012, a Merrimack County Superior Court judge said Franklin officials failed to show that barring sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, day care or playground protects children.  
 
     A judge in 2009 struck down Dover's ordinance on similar grounds.