The Harlem woman facing a Thanksgiving Day eviction from her home because of the sex offender registry requirements filed suit Friday in Columbia County Superior Court.

Attorneys from the Southern Center for Human Rights are seeking an injunction on behalf of Wendy Whitaker, who faces eviction because she lives within 1,000 feet of a child-care center and church. They are also asking a judge to find the statute unconstitutional.

Mrs. Whitaker is on the sex offender registry because in 1996, when she was a 17-year-old high school student, she engaged in a consensual sex act with a student who was 15, according to the lawsuit.

The General Assembly created the punitive registry requirements in 2006. Though courts and the legislators have tamed some of the provisions, Mrs. Whitaker's case falls through the safety net.

Mrs. Whitaker had moved from her home, but she returned this year after the law allowed sex offenders who own their homes to remain.

But the Columbia County Sheriff's Office ordered her to leave the home because it is within 1,000 feet of a church, and Mrs. Whitaker's name was not on the deed in 2006 when it was purchased. It was titled in her husband's name, according to the lawsuit.

The Whitakers cannot afford to make mortgage payments and rent a second home, according to the lawsuit. If forced to leave, they likely will face foreclosure and might become homeless, the lawsuit says.

Mrs. Whitaker wouldn't be on the register at all if she had committed the offense after June 30, 2001. That was the cutoff date legislators set when they rewrote the sexual assault laws to reduce penalties for consensual sex acts between teenagers who are close in age.

Mrs. Whitaker had sought relief from the federal court, but earlier this month the U.S. District Court in Atlanta rejected her plea.

Two years ago, a federal judge ruled that the provision keeping sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop was unconstitutional. Plaintiffs convinced the judge that it was impossible to find a home that wasn't within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop.

But this month a federal judge ruled that the current provisions restricting where a sex offender can live aren't too restrictive.

Mrs. Whitaker's supporters filed the lawsuit Friday in a state court, basing their arguments on the Georgia constitution.