Opinion ID: 181767
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Retroactive Application of SORNA to Valverde

Text: SORNA, which became effective on July 27, 2006, requires an individual convicted of a sex offense to register, and keep the registration current, in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, where the offender is an employee, and where the offender is a student. 42 U.S.C. § 16913(a). The statute does not specify whether its registration requirements apply retroactively to a sex offender who, like Valverde, was convicted before the statute's effective date. 42 U.S.C. § 16913(b). Congress instead delegated to the Attorney General the authority to specify the applicability of the requirements of [SORNA's registration requirements] to sex offenders convicted before [the statute's] enactment [on July 27, 2006] or its implementation in a particular jurisdiction and the authority to prescribe rules for the registration of any such sex offenders and for other categories of sex offenders who are unable to comply with the Act's registration requirements. 42 U.S.C. § 16913(d). Pursuant to this delegation of authority, on February 28, 2007, seven months after the statute's enactment, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales issued an interim rule applying SORNA to all sex offenders, including sex offenders convicted of the offense for which registration is required prior to the enactment of [SORNA]. 28 C.F.R. § 72.3. In issuing the interim rule, the Attorney General declined to comply with the procedural requirements of the APA. 5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq. Under the APA, rulemaking is generally required to comply with a three-step process: (1) notice of a proposed rule must be given by publication in the Federal Register, 5 U.S.C. § 553(b); (2) following publication of the proposed rule, 30 days must be provided for public comment; (3) notice of a final rule must be given by publication in the Federal Register, normally accompanied by a response to concerns raised in the public comments, not less than 30 days before [the rule's] effective date.... 5 U.S.C. § 553(d)(3). The APA permits an Agency to promulgate valid regulations without complying with these procedures, however, if it for good cause finds (and incorporates the finding and a brief statement of reasons therefor in the rules issued) that notice and public procedure thereon are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest. 5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(3)(B). The Attorney General relied upon the good cause exception in seeking to make the February 28, 2007 interim rule applying SORNA retroactively effective immediately and to render inapplicable the requirements for advance publication, public comment, and Agency response. 72 Fed. Reg. at 8895. In a statement accompanying the interim rule, the Attorney General did not state that notice and comment was impracticable or unnecessary, but solely that it was contrary to the public interest. The immediate effectiveness of this rule is necessary to eliminate any possible uncertainty about the applicability of the Act's requirementsand related means of enforcement, including criminal liability under 18 U.S.C. § 2250 for sex offenders who knowingly fail to register as requiredto sex offenders whose predicate convictions predate the enactment of SORNA. Delay in the implementation of this rule would impede the effective registration of such sex offenders and would impair immediate efforts to protect the public from sex offenders who fail to register through prosecution and the imposition of criminal sanctions. The resulting practical dangers include the commission of additional sexual assaults and child sexual abuse or exploitation offenses by sex offenders that could have been prevented had local authorities and the community been aware of their presence, in addition to greater difficulty in apprehending perpetrators who have not been registered and tracked as provided by SORNA. This would thwart the legislative objective of `protect[ing] the public from sex offenders and offenders against children' by establishing `a comprehensive national system for the registration of those offenders,' SORNA § 102, because a substantial class of sex offenders could evade the Act's mechanisms during the pendency of a proposed rule and delay in the effectiveness of a final rule. 72 Fed.Reg. at 8896-97. In issuing the interim rule, the Attorney General requested post-promulgation comments, but did not subsequently publish a response to any comments he may have received or publish the interim regulation in final form. Three months later, the Attorney General solicited comments when on May 30, 2007 he issued preliminary guidelines called Sentencing Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART), which proposed to apply SORNA's requirements retroactively. 72 Fed.Reg. 30,210. This time, the Attorney General responded to the comments about the retroactivity determination when he published the final SMART guidelines on July 2, 2008. 73 Fed.Reg. 38030, 38063. The parties do not dispute that Valverde was a sex offender by reason of his conviction under California law. Nor do they dispute that after Valverde's release, he knowingly traveled from California to Missouri, where he knowingly failed to register as a sex offender. Because SORNA did not specify whether it applied to individuals convicted of a sex offense before the statute's July 2006 enactment, but instead delegated that determination to the Attorney General, Valverde, having been convicted in 2002, was not subject to prosecution under SORNA until the Attorney General, pursuant to his delegated rulemaking authority under 42 U.S.C. § 16913(d), determined, in compliance with the APA, that SORNA's registration requirements applied retroactively to him and others convicted before the statute's enactment. See United States v. Juvenile Male, 590 F.3d 924, 929 (9th Cir.2010) (Congress delegated to the Attorney General the decision whether SORNA should apply retroactively to sex offenders who were convicted before the statute's effective date.). The issue is therefore whether there was a validly promulgated regulation that applied SORNA's registration requirements retroactively to Valverde during the January 2008 period covered by his indictment for failure to register and for traveling in interstate commerce.