ATLANTA - - Legislation Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law Friday aims to close what sponsors called a loophole created by a Supreme Court decision that exonerated an Augusta teacher who was convicted of sex with a student.

The state's highest court ruled last year that a law that prohibited sex between teachers and students included a defense for any teacher prosecuted if the student testified it was consensual. The court concluded the fact that the law at the time specifically excluded consent in other circumstances and not in the case of a teacher, that the General Assembly must have intended consent to be a valid defense.

Whether it was intention at the time the law was drafted or merely poor wording, legislators made clear their thinking in House Bill 571, sponsored by House Speaker David Ralston, which passed with only a single no vote in the House or Senate.

The measure also seeks to address other court decisions that weakened restrictions on where people on a sex offender registry can live and provides a mechanism for them to ask a judge to be taken off the registry.

It was one of 67 bills signed by Perdue Friday from the 2010 legislative session that ended last month.

This story submitted from Jones, Walter using email address walter.jones@morris.com