In a unanimous decision, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down a state law that placed a ban on where registered sex offenders could reside. The law, one of the most restrictive in the nation, forbade registered sex offenders from "living within 1,000 feet of of schools, churches or any other place where children might congregate, including more than 150,000 school bus stops in the state." The ban was in effect even if a school or a church established itself in an area where an offender was already living. The Court ruled the statute was so restrictive it unconstitutionally deprived the offender of their property rights and violated "Fifth Amendment prohibitions against the public taking of private property without compensation." The state legislator who originally sponsored the measure has promised to introduce a re-drafted version of the law when the state legislature convenes in January 2008.