ALPENA — More than 40 Alpena registered sex offenders may be removed from the Michigan Sex Offender Registry if lawmakers don’t overhaul the registry that has several times been declared unconstitutional.

A federal judge ruled Friday that, unless drastic legislative action is taken, come the middle of May, the state’s database of people who have committed sex-related offenses will no longer be enforceable at all against people whose crimes were committed before April 12, 2011.

For people whose offenses occurred more recently, the state will be unable to enforce parts of the law that has been ruled unconstitutional.

This includes the requirements that offenders not live or work within a school safety zone and that they give police all personal phone numbers and email addresses.

Within a five-mile radius of Alpena’s downtown, 46 registered sex offenders, or 70%, were convicted of crimes that occured before 2011.

The registry has been challenged since 2012 and was twice ruled unconstitutional, but lawmakers have not made required changes even though ordered to do so by a federal judge.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland said on Friday that by March 13, lawyers must decide how they will inform registrants, prosecutors, and law enforcement that registrants will no longer have to comply with the unconstitutional provisions.

Two months later, the judge’s opinion will go into effect, and much of the current sex offender registry, which currently lists over 40,000 offenders in the state, will become uninforceable.

The 60-day window before the opinion goes into effect is “principally to allow time for the legislature to craft and enact a new statute,” Cleland wrote.

The judge’s ruling will “fracture” the existing structure of the registry, Cleland acknowledged.

“However, the court anticipates that its ruling will reignite efforts to finalize a new, unified registration statute that can survive constitutional review,” the judge said.

Since 2016, state lawmakers have been given multiple opportunities to change the unconstitutional portion of the registry, including a federal order to do so within a 90-day window, to which an extension of 60 days was added.

Those changes have not been made.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.