Opinion ID: 3012900
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: This appeal presents us with the latest in a long string of challenges to New Jersey’s Megan’s Law. This time, we 4 consider privacy claims as to the newest addition to the existing statutory regime — the creation of a public internet registry posting personal information about convicted sex offenders. In 1994, seven year old Megan Kanka was abducted, raped, and murdered near her New Jersey home by a neighbor who had previously been convicted of sex offenses against young girls. Thereafter, Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, title 17, § 170101, 108 Stat. 2038, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §14071, which conditions certain federal funds for law enforcement on the States’ adoption of a Megan’s Law, so named after Megan Kanka. By 1996, every State, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Government had passed a Megan’s Law. While these laws vary from State to State, they generally require convicted sex offenders to register with law enforcement officials, who then notify community members of the registrants’ whereabouts. New Jersey’s Megan’s Law has faced legal challenges every step of the way. In Artway v. Attorney General of State of N.J., 81 F.3d 1235 (3d Cir. 1996), we upheld the registration provisions of New Jersey’s Megan’s Law in the face of ex post facto, double jeopardy, bill of attainder, due process, equal protection, and vagueness challenges. A year later in E.B. v. Verniero, 119 F.3d 1077 (3d Cir. 1997), cert. denied, sub nom. W.P. v. Verniero, 522 U.S. 1109 (1998), we rejected claims that the law’s notification requirements violated the Ex Post Facto and Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Constitution. Thereafter, we rejected claims that the notification requirement violated registrants’ privacy rights in Paul P. v. Verniero (“Paul P. I.”), 170 F.3d 396 (3d Cir. 1999), and Paul P. v. Farmer (“Paul P. II.”), 227 F.3d 98 (3d Cir. 2000). The story does not end there. In 1995, Doe v. Poritz, 662 A.2d 367 N.J. Sup. Ct. (1995), the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the original Megan’s Law, conditioned on the implementation of certain safeguards. Specifically, the Court construed the notification provisions to require a “likely to encounter” standard based on geography and further required the 5 State to provide offenders with notice of their proposed scope of notification and an opportunity for judicial review before the notification was undertaken. Id. at 29-30. In light of the Doe Court’s qualifications, New Jersey’s electorate approved by public referendum in November 2000 an amendment to the New Jersey Constitution authorizing the legislature to enact new statutory provisions permitting the disclosure of sex offender registry information to the general public. N.J. Const. art. IV, § 7, ¶ 12. Thereafter, the New Jersey legislature passed a statute authorizing the creation of an internet registry which supplements the existing registration and notification system and contains information about certain high and moderate risk sex offenders. See N. J. Stat. Ann. §§ 2C:7-12 et seq. (2003) (“Registry”).