Vasquez v. Foxx

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing for failure to state valid cause of action plaintiffs’ section 1983 action alleging that 2008 amendment to state statute, which prevented plaintiffs, as sex offenders, from knowingly residing within 500 feet of day care home or group day care home, violated Ex Post Facto Clause as improper retroactive punishment, where plaintiffs had been convicted of their sex offender offenses prior to enactment of amendment. Plaintiffs also alleged that said amendment: (1) amounted to unconstitutional taking of their property; and (2) violated their procedural and substantive due process rights. Plaintiffs could not sue defendant-City of Chicago under section 1983, since plaintiffs failed to allege any causal connection between City’s compliance monitoring of amendment and plaintiffs’ constitutional injury. Moreover, plaintiffs could not proceed on their Ex Post Facto Clause claim, where instant amendment operated only prospectively to conduct occurring after its enactment. Also, plaintiffs could not proceed on any Takings Clause claim, where: (1) they had failed to exhaust their state-court remedies for obtaining compensation prior to filing instant lawsuit; and (2) plaintiffs purchased home and/or obtained rental lease after instant amendment had been enacted. Too, due process clause did not require that plaintiffs be entitled to hearing for individualized risk assessment, where amendment applied to all sex offenders, and amendment’s creation of buffer zone between child day-care center and home of sex offenders was rational.