Opinion ID: 716733
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fitness of Issues for Judicial Review

Text: 47 The second factor for evaluating ripeness, this one never mentioned by the district court, is whether the issues are fit for judicial review. Abbott Labs., 387 U.S. at 149, 87 S.Ct. at 1515-16. In making this determination, we must once again distinguish between the registration component of Megan's Law on the one hand, and the notification provisions on the other. The principal consideration is whether the record is factually adequate to enable the court to make the necessary legal determinations. The more that the question presented is purely one of law, and the less that additional facts will aid the court in its inquiry, the more likely the issue is to be ripe, and vice-versa. Compare Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Envtl. Study Group, Inc., 438 U.S. 59, 81-82, 98 S.Ct. 2620, 2634-35, 57 L.Ed.2d 595 (1978) (Although it is true that no nuclear accident has occurred and that such an occurrence would eliminate much of the existing scientific uncertainty surrounding this subject, it would not, in our view, significantly advance our ability to deal with the legal issues presented nor aid us in their resolution.) with Zemel v. Rusk, 381 U.S. 1, 20, 85 S.Ct. 1271, 1282, 14 L.Ed.2d 179 (1965) ([I]f we are to avoid rendering a series of advisory opinions, adjudication of the reach and constitutionality of [a statute under which the President prohibited travel to Cuba] must await a concrete fact situation.). 48 Courts are particularly vigilant to ensure that cases are ripe when constitutional questions are at issue. See Communist Party of the United States v. Subversive Activities Control Bd., 367 U.S. 1, 81, 81 S.Ct. 1357, 1402, 6 L.Ed.2d 625 (1961) (holding unripe an ex post facto challenge to the Corrupt Practices Act especially in light of the rule to avoid unnecessary constitutional decisions). Indeed, the Supreme Court has held a constitutional challenge unripe because of the need for more detailed factual information in the record [e]ven though the challenged statute is sure to work the injury alleged. Babbitt v. United Farm Workers Nat'l Union, 442 U.S. 289, 300, 99 S.Ct. 2301, 2310, 60 L.Ed.2d 895 (1979). 49 Two Supreme Court cases illustrate the need for factual information particularly well. In Socialist Labor Party v. Gilligan, 406 U.S. 583, 92 S.Ct. 1716, 32 L.Ed.2d 317 (1972), the Court dismissed as unripe a challenge on First Amendment grounds to a state law that required candidates to swear not to attempt to overthrow the government by violence or force. The Court concluded that the record ... is extraordinarily skimpy in the sort of proved or admitted facts that would enable us to adjudicate this claim. Id. at 587, 92 S.Ct. at 1719. Even assuming the plaintiffs had standing to challenge the law, the Court continued, their case has not given any particularity to the effect on them of Ohio's affidavit requirement. Id. at 588, 92 S.Ct. at 1719. In California Bankers Association v. Shultz, 416 U.S. 21, 94 S.Ct. 1494, 39 L.Ed.2d 812 (1974), the Court similarly declared unripe a First Amendment challenge to bank record-keeping and reporting requirements because of an insufficient factual record. Id. at 56, 94 S.Ct. at 1515. This Court, in the absence of a concrete fact situation in which competing associational and governmental interests can be weighed, is simply not in a position to determine whether an effort to compel disclosure of such records would or would not be barred .... Id. 50 Megan's Law's registration provisions require simply that Artway register and provide information to the local prosecutor, who in turn may provide the information only to local law enforcement agents. No private individuals or other organizations may receive this information. Registration, therefore, involves few variables in its operation. As in Duke Power, the issue is primarily one of law and further factual information will provide little assistance. Under these circumstances, we are confident that Artway's registration challenge is fit for judicial review. 51 The notification procedures, on the other hand, involve dissemination of potentially devastating information to undetermined numbers of private citizens. Because these private citizens are not part of the trained state law enforcement mechanism, we are less certain how they will react. For instance, the one study in the record chronicles a number of incidents of harassment at the hands of private citizens as a result of the State of Washington's notification law, but records no incidents on the part of law enforcement. We also lack concrete record evidence about what Artway's future dangerousness classification will be, on what facts this classification will be determined, and who will be notified. 9 52 Because Artway has not submitted to these procedures, and because the district court decided this case without admitting any appreciable evidence, we have almost no factual grounding on which to make an assessment about notification as applied to Artway. The record contains two pieces of data: a flier distributed by the Guardian Angels warning Woodbridge residents to BEWARE and the brief State of Washington report describing the effects of a different law in that jurisdiction. 10 While the tenor of the flier and the results of the study are worrisome indeed, they are but snippets compared to a developed record. Consistent with the basic principles of Gilligan, Shultz et alia, we cannot make complex and important determinations in a factual vacuum. 53 Moreover, the constitutionality of the notification provisions of Megan's Law may well turn on the most careful parsing of the Supreme Court's rulings on punishment. Not only must we decide whether a multifaceted and novel 11 regulatory scheme violates constitutional safeguards, we must also discern the parameters of these safeguards themselves. As the discussion in Part V infra reveals, the law in this area needs clarification. We may not undertake this task without factual tools. 54 Thus, Artway's challenge to the notification provisions of Megan's Law fails both prongs of the ripeness test. The district court erred because, in analyzing the hardship of denying review, it did not distinguish between registration and notification; it also omitted the fitness for judicial review prong entirely. Whether Artway will ever be subject to Megan's Law's notification requirements remains a matter of speculation, and the record lacks the factual information necessary for this Court to decide Artway's notification claims consistent with its Article III obligations.