TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Dec 1, 2023

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today announced that Tennessee’s decades-old aggravated prostitution statute violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Associated Press reports that Tennessee is the only state in the nation that imposes a lifetime registration requirement on a “violent sex offender” convicted of engaging in sex work while living with HIV, regardless of whether the person knew they could transmit the disease. The DOJ is calling on Tennessee to not only stop enforcing the law, but also remove those convicted under the statute from the sex offender registry and expunge their convictions. In October, several groups — including the ACLU of Tennessee, Transgender Law Center, OUTMemphis and several Jane Does —also filed suit over the law.