Opinion ID: 623395
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Validity of SMART Guidelines

Text: The district court accepted the defendants' argument that the SMART guidelines did not make SORNA retroactively applicable to Flowers and Stevenson: Careful review of these proposed and final [SMART] guidelines, however, demonstrates they were not promulgated for the purposes of making § 16913 applicable to persons convicted prior to July 27, 2006. Rather, they were issued pursuant to a different authority given the Attorney General under 42 U.S.C. § 16912(b), requiring him (rather than giving him discretion as under the grant of authority in § 16913(d)) to issue guidelines and regulations to interpret and implement SORNA. Stevenson Docket, R. 22 (D. Ct. Op. & Order at 11). The defendants raise this same argument in response to the government's appeal. They do not argue that the SMART guidelines violate any of the other necessary notice-and-comment procedures under the APA. Nor do they argue that the Attorney General lacks the authority at all under SORNA to establish retroactivity. Rather, the defendants argue that the SMART guidelines should not be deemed a valid rule on retroactivity because they were promulgated pursuant to the Attorney General's authority under § 16912(b), not his authority under § 16913(d). They argue that § 16912(b) authorizes the Attorney General to issue only interpretative guidance on SORNA, not substantive rules, and even if § 16912(b) did authorize substantive rules, a rule regarding retroactivity promulgated under § 16912(b) would be outside the scope of the enabling statute because only § 16913(d) gave the Attorney General the power to establish retroactivity. [3] We reject these arguments for three reasons. First, the SMART guidelines themselves adequately make reference to both § 16912(b) and § 16913(d) for legislative authority. The defendants are correct that the proposed guidelines state that they were enacted to carry out a statutory directive to the Attorney General in section 112(b) of SORNA (42 U.S.C. 16912(b)) to issue guidelines to interpret and implement SORNA. 72 Fed.Reg. 30,210, 30,210. However, in the discussion of retroactivity, the proposed SMART guidelines do not merely refer back to the Interim Rule, as the defendants claim. The SMART guidelines state: The applicability of the SORNA requirements is not limited to sex offenders whose predicate sex offense convictions occur following a jurisdiction's implementation of a conforming registration program. Rather, SORNA's requirements apply to all sex offenders, including those whose convictions predate the enactment of the Act. 72 Fed.Reg. 30,210, 30,212. Only then does the provision reiterate that the Attorney General has the authority to do so pursuant to the authority under SORNA section 113(d) [§ 16913(d)] and did in fact do so in the Interim Rule. Id. The APA does not require that the proposed rule cite the relevant legal authority in a certain location, but rather requires just that notice must be given for any proposed rule. 5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(2). We do not hesitate to find that the SMART guidelines adequately gave notice of the relevant legal authority in this case. [4] Second, even if the SMART guidelines were solely promulgated under § 16912(b), the Attorney General still had the authority to address the retroactivity of SORNA in substantive rules pursuant to § 16912(b), because § 16912(b) incorporates by reference § 16913(d). As an initial matter, the defendants are incorrect that § 16912(b) provides the Attorney General authority solely to interpret SORNA and not to make substantive rules. By its own terms, § 16912(b) authorizes the Attorney General to make both interpretative and substantive rules because it unambiguously permits the Attorney General to make rules regarding both the interpretation and implementation of the sections therein. Substantive rules are rules that implement the statute. Chrysler Corp. v. Brown, 441 U.S. 281, 302 n. 31, 99 S.Ct. 1705, 60 L.Ed.2d 208 (1979) (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis added). Interpretive rules, which explicate the meaning of statutes, are less restrictive because they do not have the force or effect of law. Id. [5] When, as here, Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue ... [we] must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984); Citizens Coal Council v. U.S. E.P.A., 447 F.3d 879, 890-92 (6th Cir.2006) (en banc). Section 16912(b) unambiguously gives the Attorney General the authority to make substantive rules on how to implement SORNA. [6] Section 16912(b) also unambiguously instructs the Attorney General to make the necessary regulations to implement this subchapter. 42 U.S.C. § 16912(b). The applicable subchapter in this case is Subchapter I  Sex Offender Registration and Notification, 42 U.S.C. §§ 16901-16962. Section 16913(d) indisputably falls within that subchapter. Although § 16912(b) does not explicitly authorize the Attorney General to make rules on retroactivity, we cannot ignore that § 16912(b) instructs the Attorney General to implement the subchapter, and the subchapter includes the specific option of making a rule on retroactivity. See Reynolds, 132 S.Ct. at 981-82 (recognizing Congress charged the Department of Justice with examining the many potential applications of SORNA and implementing SORNA accordingly, citing in part § 16912(b)); see also Chevron, 467 U.S. at 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778 (deferring to agency's permissible construction of the statute if language is ambiguous). When Congress broadly authorizes an agency to implement the remainder of a statute in one section and then specifies in the very next section a specific type of rule the agency is expressly authorized to make, we can hardly fault the agency for citing the section giving it broad authorization when issuing substantive rules including the specific one expressly authorized in another section of the exact same statute. This is consistent with our review of agency rules with reference to the enabling statute as a whole, not any particular provision in isolation. Nat'l Cotton Council of Am. v. U.S. E.P.A., 553 F.3d 927, 933 (6th Cir.2009) (citing Nat'l Ass'n of Home Builders v. Defenders of Wildlife, 551 U.S. 644, 666, 127 S.Ct. 2518, 168 L.Ed.2d 467 (2007)), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 1505, 176 L.Ed.2d 110 (2010); see also Riverkeeper, Inc. v. U.S. E.P.A., 358 F.3d 174, 185-86 (2d Cir.2004) (analyzing extent of agency's authorization in enabling statute with reference to other sections explicitly cross-referenced in statute). Best practices may include citing all relevant sections of an enabling statute, but failure to do so does not establish that this rule was outside the scope of Congress's authorization. Finally, any error with respect to the Attorney General's recitation of the proper legal authority was not prejudicial. See 5 U.S.C. § 706. As we discussed in Utesch, 596 F.3d at 311-13, the key to whether an agency's procedural error in promulgating a rule is harmless error hinges not on whether the same rule would have issued absent the error, but whether the affected parties had sufficient opportunity to weigh in on the proposed rule. Id. at 312 (citing Riverbend Farms, Inc. v. Madigan, 958 F.2d 1479, 1487 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 999, 113 S.Ct. 598, 121 L.Ed.2d 535 (1992)). [W]hen the purposes of the procedural requirements have been fully met, there is no need for the courts to require rigid adherence to formalistic rules. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. v. F.T.C., 710 F.2d 1165, 1174 (6th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1100, 104 S.Ct. 1595, 80 L.Ed.2d 127 (1984). Even if the proposed SMART guidelines referenced primarily § 16912(b), they also unequivocally stated that the SORNA would apply retroactively. The Attorney General received and addressed numerous comments from the public on the issue of retroactivity. See 73 Fed.Reg. 38,030, 38,035-36. [7] Therefore, the parties cannot complain of either a lack of adequate notice or opportunity to be heard meaningfully on the issue of retroactivity. See Utesch, 596 F.3d at 310 (requiring actual consideration of public commentary); Brown, 710 F.2d at 1173. We are therefore confident that the Attorney General's initial citation to § 16912(b), even if a technical violation of the APA's notice requirement, clearly had no bearing on the procedure used or the substance of decision reached. Riverbend Farms, 958 F.2d at 1487 (internal quotation marks omitted). For all these reasons, the SMART guidelines can and do have the force and effect of law, and they establish that SORNA became retroactive as of August 1, 2008. The Attorney General was properly delegated authority by Congress to enact the substantive rule regarding retroactivity and the authority to implement SORNA. The SMART guidelines clearly set forth the rule on retroactivity and the authority to issue such a rule and were properly promulgated pursuant to all of the other notice-and-comment requirements in the APA. [8] They became final on August 1, 2008, thirty days after they were published. See Utesch, 596 F.3d at 310-11; Trent, 654 F.3d at 582-83. Having found no compelling argument to the contrary, we hold today what we first concluded in Utesch: SORNA became retroactive to pre-enactment offenders on August 1, 2008. The district court therefore erred in dismissing the indictments of Flowers and Stevenson, who traveled after the SMART guidelines became final.