Opinion ID: 620046
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: SORNA: History and Framework

Text: “In the years prior to SORNA’s enactment, the Nation had been shocked by cases in which children had been raped and murdered by persons who, unbeknownst to their neighbors or the police, were convicted sex offenders.” Carr v. United States, 130 S. Ct. 2229, 2249 (2010) (Alito, J., dissenting). In response to these events, “Congress and state legislatures passed [several] laws requiring the registration of sex offenders.” Id. One such law was the federal Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (the “Wetterling Act”), Pub. L. 103-322, Tit. XVII, § 170101(c), 108 Stat. 2041.1 Despite federal and state efforts to monitor convicted sex offenders, approximately 100,000 sex offenders—nearly one-fifth of the United States’ total sex offender 1 “Under the Wetterling Act, states were given three years to establish a sex offender registration program in compliance with the Act or forfeit 10 percent of federal funding for a state and local law enforcement assistance program.” United States v. Begay, 622 F.3d 1187, 1189 (9th Cir. 2010). “The Wetterling Act required convicted sex offenders to register their addresses with states.” Id. The Wetterling Act was replaced by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-248, § 129(a), 120 Stat. 587, which contains more specific sex offender registration requirements. 2 population—remained unregistered in 2005. See H. R. Rep. No. 109-218, pt. 1, p. 26 (2005). In July 2006, Congress enacted the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (the “Walsh Act”), Pub. L. No. 109-248, §§ 1-155, 120 Stat. 587, 590-611 (2006). Title I of the Walsh Act established SORNA. See id. “SORNA was enacted to succeed and enhance the registration requirements of the Wetterling Act,” United States v. Begay, 622 F.3d 1187, 1190 (9th Cir. 2010), and to eliminate “a dangerous gap in the then-existing sex-offender-registration laws.” Carr, 130 S. Ct. at 2249 (Alito, J., dissenting); see also United States v. Yelloweagle, 643 F.3d 1275, 1277 (10th Cir. 2011) (noting that SORNA was enacted based on Congress’s “conclusion that existing sex offender registration and reporting requirements were too readily circumvented”). The declared purpose of SORNA is “to protect the public from sex offenders and offenders against children . . . [by] establish[ing] a comprehensive national system for the registration of those offenders.” 42 U.S.C. § 16901. To accomplish this objective, SORNA established a national database, see 42 U.S.C. § 16919(a), “[i]ntended as a means of preventing sex offenders from evading their registration requirements by crossing state lines.” United States v. Lawrance, 548 F.3d 1329, 1334 (10th Cir. 2008); see also Carr, 130 S. Ct. at 2240 (noting that SORNA was “enacted to address the deficiencies in prior law that had enabled sex offenders to slip through the cracks”). SORNA includes civil and criminal components. Its civil component—42 U.S.C. § 16913—states: “A sex offender shall register, and keep the registration current, in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, where the offender is an employee, and where the 3 offender is a student.” SORNA defines the term “sex offender” as “an individual who was convicted of a sex offense.” Id. at 16911(1). Section 16913 “requires all sex offenders to register [and to keep their registrations current], regardless of whether their convictions are based on federal or state law.” Yelloweagle, 643 F.3d at 1276; see also Begay, 622 F.3d at 1187 (noting that § 16913 imposes “two separate obligations—an obligation to register and an obligation to keep the registration current”). To ensure such compliance, 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d) requires federal district courts to “order, as an explicit condition of supervised release for a person required to register under [SORNA], that the person comply with the requirements of that Act.” Thus, for all persons convicted of a federal sex offense after SORNA’s enactment, the registration requirements contained in § 16913 are a mandatory component of their supervised release. See id. SORNA’s criminal provision—18 U.S.C. § 2250(a)—imposes criminal penalties for failure to comply with § 16913’s registration requirements. Section 16913 “applies to all sex offenders regardless of whether their convictions arise under federal or state law.” Yelloweagle, 643 F.3d at 1278. By contrast, § 2250(a) “imposes criminal liability on two categories of persons who fail to adhere to SORNA’s registration requirements: (1) any person who is a sex offender by reason of a conviction under federal law, and (2) any other [sex offender] who travels in interstate or foreign commerce.” Carr, 130 S. Ct. at 2238 (quotations and citations omitted). Persons convicted of state sex crimes “who never leave the state in which they were convicted” are not subject to criminal penalties under § 2250(a). Yelloweagle, 643 F.3d at 1278. 4