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SORNA

United States v. Kebodeaux

in
Oral argument: 
April 17, 2013
Court below: 
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

While serving in the Air Force in 1999, a military tribunal convicted twenty-one-year-old Anthony Kebodeaux of statutory rape for having consensual sex with a fifteen-year-old girl.  Following a three-month sentence and bad-conduct discharge, Kebodeaux moved to Texas, where he became subject to strict lifetime registration requirements that include annual in-person registration and registration updates upon intrastate movement.  Seven years later, in 2006, Congress enacted the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), which imposes registration requirements on sex offenders convicted under state or federal law, and additionally prescribes penalties for failure to register. After failing to update his registration following an intrastate move in 2008, Kebodeaux was convicted under SORNA in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas and sentenced to one year and one day in prison, plus five years of supervised release. Kebodeaux appealed this conviction to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, arguing that Congress did not have jurisdiction to criminalize his intrastate movements. The Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed the District Court’s conviction, holding that as applied to Kebodeaux, SORNA’s registration requirements were unconstitutional as exceeding Congress’s Article I powers. On appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States argues that SORNA did not constitute overreaching by the federal government because Kebodeaux was consistently subject to federal jurisdiction, having committed a federal offense under military law. In response, Kebodeaux contends that his release from prison pre-SORNA was unconditional, meaning that he is bound only by state registration requirements and any reassertion of federal jurisdiction over him through SORNA would be unconstitutional.  This case will also examine the balance between the benefits of uniformity in a comprehensive registration system against considerations of state sovereignty.

Questions Presented: 

1. Whether the court of appeals erred in conducting its constitutional analysis on the premise that respondent was not under a federal registration obligation until SORNA was enacted, when pre-SORNA federal law obligated him to register as a sex offender.

2. Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that Congress lacks the Article I authority to provide for criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. 2250(a)(2)(A), as applied to a person who was convicted of a sex offense under federal law and completed his criminal sentence before SORNA was enacted.

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Issue(s)

Whether the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act with its accompanying regulations requiring all past sex offenders to notify the federal government of intrastate moves is unconstitutional as applied to an individual li

Written by: 
Belinda Liu
Sarah O'Laughlin
Edited by: 
Jenny Liu
Additional Resources: 

Fifth Circuit Holds Federal Retroactive Sex Offender Registration Statute Sometimes Exceeds Article I Powers, Volokh Conspiracy.

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Reynolds v. United States (10-6549)

in

Oral argument: Oct. 3, 2011

Appealed from: United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Billy Joe Reynolds, a registered sex offender, was convicted for failing to update his registration upon moving from Missouri to Pennsylvania. Under the newly enacted Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), sex offenders are required to update the federal registry within three days of a change of residence. An Interim Rule issued by the Attorney General applied the statute retroactively to all sex offenders convicted before SORNA’s enactment, including Reynolds. Reynolds challenged the legality of the Interim Rule but the circuit court dismissed his case for lack of standing. In the current suit, Reynolds argues that SORNA’s registration requirements are not applicable to individuals with pre-SORNA convictions. Reynolds adds that the Interim Rule made SORNA’s registration requirements applicable to him, thus giving him standing to challenge the Rule. The Supreme Court's decision will determine whether pre-SORNA sex offenders can state a claim against the Interim Rule, thus potentially delaying the government’s efforts in creating an effective national sex offender registry system. The decision may also prevent the government from issuing harsh new registration requirements without notice to individuals in Reynolds’s situation.

Carr v. United States (08-1301)

in

Appealed from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Dec. 22, 2008)

Oral argument: Feb. 24, 2010

EX POST FACTO, SEX OFFENDER, SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION, SORNA

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) requires convicted sex offenders to register in any jurisdiction in which the offender resides and imposes criminal penalties on any sex offenders who travel in interstate commerce and knowingly fail to register. Before SORNA was enacted, Thomas Carr, a convicted sex offender, moved to Indiana but failed to register. A federal grand jury indicted Carr for his failure to register under SORNA. Carr appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, arguing that applying SORNA violated the ex post facto clause as his conviction and travel predated SORNA. The Seventh Circuit held that SORNA did not violate the ex post fact clause because the failure to register occurred after SORNA was enacted. The Supreme Court’s decision will settle a circuit split over whether SORNA can punish sex offenders who traveled in interstate commerce before its enactment.

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