UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT 

_________________________________ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff - Appellee, 

v. 

MONTY ENGLEHART, 

 Defendant - Appellant. 

No. 19-8006 

(D.C. No. 2:12-CR-00026-ABJ-1) 

(D. Wyo.) 

_________________________________ 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

_________________________________ 

Before MATHESON, McKAY, and BACHARACH, Circuit Judges. 

_________________________________ 

Appellant Monty Englehart, a convicted sex offender, was charged with failing to 

register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”), 34 U.S.C. 

§ 20901 et seq. He moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that SORNA violated the 

constitutional nondelegation doctrine by improperly delegating legislative power to the 

Attorney General. The district court denied the motion, and Mr. Englehart appealed. 

 *

 This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of 

law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its 

persuasive value consistent with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 32.1 and 

Tenth Circuit Rule 32.1. 

FILED 

United States Court of Appeals 

Tenth Circuit 

June 25, 2019

Elisabeth A. Shumaker 

Clerk of Court
2 

We hold that Mr. Englehart’s nondelegation argument is foreclosed by Gundy v. 

United States, No. 17-6086, 2019 WL 2527473, at *1 (U.S. June 20, 2019). Exercising 

jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. 

I. BACKGROUND 

In 1997, Mr. Englehart was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Nine 

years later, Congress enacted SORNA, which requires convicted sex offenders to register 

in a national sex offender registry. See 34 U.S.C. § 20913(a). Title 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a) 

makes it a felony for an individual “required to register under [SORNA]” to “travel[] in 

interstate or foreign commerce” and “knowingly fail[] to register or update a registration 

as required by [SORNA].” 

SORNA gives the Attorney General “the authority to specify the applicability of 

the [registration] requirements . . . to sex offenders convicted before [SORNA’s] 

enactment . . . and to prescribe rules for the registration of any such sex offenders.” 

34 U.S.C. § 20913(d). Exercising this authority, the Attorney General issued an interim 

rule in 2007 applying SORNA’s registration requirements “to all sex offenders, including 

sex offenders convicted of the offense . . . prior to the enactment of [SORNA].” 72 Fed. 

Reg. 8894-01 (Feb. 28, 2007) (to be codified at 28 C.F.R. § 72.3). In 2010, it issued a 

second regulation finalizing SORNA’s retroactive applicability. 28 C.F.R. § 72.3. 

Mr. Englehart was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a) for failing to register as 

required under SORNA and the regulation. He moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing 

that SORNA’s grant of authority to the Attorney General to specify the extent of the 

Act’s retroactive application violated the constitutional nondelegation doctrine. Mr. 
3 

Englehart acknowledged that his argument was “currently foreclosed,” ROA at 18, by 

United States v. Nichols, 775 F.3d 1225 (10th Cir. 2014), which held that SORNA does 

not violate the nondelegation doctrine. Id. at 1231-32. But because Gundy—a case 

addressing “this very issue”—was then pending before the United States Supreme Court, 

he “raise[d] this argument to preserve it for further review.” ROA at 22. 

The district court denied the motion to dismiss, and Mr. Englehart appealed, 

urging the same arguments. 

II. ANALYSIS

On June 20, 2019, the Supreme Court decided Gundy. The Court held that 

Congress did not “make an impermissible delegation when it instructed the Attorney 

General to apply SORNA’s registration requirements to pre-Act offenders,” Gundy, 2019 

WL 2527473, at *8, and that the “delegation easily passes constitutional muster,” id. at 

*2. 

III. CONCLUSION

The Supreme Court’s holding in Gundy forecloses Mr. Englehart’s nondelegation 

argument. Accordingly, we affirm. 

 

Entered for the Court 

Scott M. Matheson, Jr. 

Circuit Judge