Opinion ID: 789142
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: the ex post facto challenge

Text: 161 Hobbs also contends that the Prohibition in Executive Order 3-2003 amounts to further criminal punishment of previously convicted sex offenders and hence violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution. Again, we disagree. 162 The Ex Post Facto Clause provides that [n]o State shall ... pass any ... ex post facto Law, U.S. Const. art. I, § 10, cl. 1. Under this Clause, the government may not, inter alia, enact a law that punishes an act that was innocent prior to the enactment or a law that inflicts a greater punishment than was applicable to the crime when committed. See, e.g., Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386, 390, 1 L.Ed. 648 (1798). The ex post facto bar, however, is applicable only to criminal punishments, and does not include retrospective laws of a different character. Kentucky Union Co. v. Kentucky, 219 U.S. 140, 153, 31 S.Ct. 171, 55 L.Ed. 137 (1911); see also Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. 433, 441, 117 S.Ct. 891, 137 L.Ed.2d 63 (1997). 163 [W]here unpleasant consequences are brought to bear upon an individual for prior conduct, the fundamental question is whether the legislative aim was to punish that individual for past activity, or whether the restriction of the individual comes about as a relevant incident to a regulation of a present situation. De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 160, 80 S.Ct. 1146, 4 L.Ed.2d 1109 (1960). The former would violate the Ex Post Facto Clause; the latter would not. See, e.g., Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. at 445, 117 S.Ct. 891 (statute retroactively canceling former prisoner's earned provisional release credits, with which he had secured an early release, and requiring his return to prison, violated Ex Post Facto Clause by increasing punishment for crime); De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. at 160, 80 S.Ct. 1146 (statutory ban against employment of convicted felons in jobs involving collection of union dues from various waterfront workers did not impose a criminal penalty); Hawker v. New York, 170 U.S. 189, 191-92, 18 S.Ct. 573, 42 L.Ed. 1002 (1898) (same for statutory ban against convicted felons' practice of medicine). In addressing the question of whether a penalty is criminal, we analyze, inter alia, whether, in its necessary operation, the regulatory scheme: has been regarded in our history and traditions as a punishment; imposes an affirmative disability or restraint; promotes the traditional aims of punishment; has a rational connection to a nonpunitive purpose; or is excessive with respect to this purpose. Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. at 96-97, 123 S.Ct. 1140. 164 The Prohibition provision in Executive Order 3-2003 does not impose a criminal penalty. Requirements by municipalities that permits be obtained for demonstrations, parades, and other types of gatherings in public fora have long been required; but those requirements have not been in the nature of punishment. Nor does the Executive Order impose a significant affirmative disability or restraint on convicted pedophiles. It imposes no physical restraint, and so does not resemble the punishment of imprisonment, which is the paradigmatic affirmative disability or restraint. Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. at 100, 123 S.Ct. 1140. And although the Executive Order's requirement that such a person apply for a permit in order to give a presentation using props and/or equipment might be considered an affirmative restraint, see Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. at 101, 123 S.Ct. 1140, it plainly is not a restraint that is designed to be punitive, for the permit requirement for prop-assisted presentations applies to all applicants, whether or not they have been convicted of any crime. Moreover, the restraint is de minimis given that anyone, even a convicted pedophile, who wishes to engage in expressive activity without the use of props and/or equipment needs no permit. 165 Nor is the Prohibition's permit requirement intended to serve the traditional purposes of punishment, which include retribution, rehabilitation, prevention of further crimes by the defendant, and deterrence of the defendant and others who might contemplate committing similar crimes, see generally 1 W. LaFave, Substantive Criminal Law § 1.5(a)(2d ed.2003). Although potentially related to deterrence and prevention, the stated purpose of the Executive Order is simply the protection of children. The relationship is not sufficient to make the Prohibition a criminal penalty, for [t]o hold that the mere presence of a deterrent purpose renders such sanctions `criminal'... would severely undermine the Government's ability to engage in effective regulation, Smith v. Doe, 538 U.S. at 102, 123 S.Ct. 1140 (internal quotation marks omitted). 166 Finally, it is plain, as discussed in Part II.A. above, that the Prohibition against allowing convicted pedophiles to make prop-assisted presentations that would entice children to congregate around the pedophiles has a rational connection to the Executive Order's purpose. And given the limited application of the Executive Order, which does not impose the permitting requirement even on a person previously convicted of a sex crime against a minor if that person does not wish to use props and/or equipment in his presentation, we cannot conclude that the Executive Order is excessive with respect to its purpose. 167 In sum, we see no violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause.