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

Heading: Synthesizing the Jurisprudence: The Test(s)

Text: 114 Synthesizing these cases, we derive the following analytical framework for this case. A measure must pass a three-prong analysis----(1) actual purpose, (2) objective purpose, and (3) effect----to constitute non-punishment. We must look at actual purpose to see whether the legislative aim was to punish. See De Veau, 363 U.S. at 160, 80 S.Ct. at 1155. If the legislature intended Megan's Law to be punishment, i.e., retribution was one of its actual purposes, then it must fail constitutional scrutiny. If, on the other hand, the restriction of the individual comes about as a relevant incident to a regulation, the measure will pass this first prong. Id. 115 If the legislature's actual purpose does not appear to be to punish, we look next to its objective purpose. This prong, in turn, has three subparts. First, can the law be explained solely by a remedial purpose? See Halper, 490 U.S. at 448, 109 S.Ct. at 1901-02. If not, it is punishment. Second, even if some remedial purpose can fully explain the measure, does a historical analysis show that the measure has traditionally been regarded as punishment? See Austin, 509 U.S. at 610-11, 113 S.Ct. at 2806. If so, and if the text or legislative history does not demonstrate that this measure is not punitive, it must be considered punishment. Third, if the legislature did not intend a law to be retributive but did intend it to serve some mixture of deterrent and salutary purposes, we must determine (1) whether historically the deterrent purpose of such a law is a necessary complement to its salutary operation and (2) whether the measure under consideration operates in its usual manner, consistent with its historically mixed purposes. See Kurth Ranch, --- U.S. at ---- - ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1946-48. Unless the partially deterrent measure meets both of these criteria, it is punishment. If the measure meets both of these criteria and the deterrent purpose does not overwhelm the salutary purpose, it is permissible under Kurth Ranch. 116 Finally, if the purpose tests are satisfied, we must then turn to the effects of the measure. If the negative repercussions----regardless of how they are justified----are great enough, the measure must be considered punishment. See Morales, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1603. This inquiry, guided by the facts of decided cases, is necessarily one of degree. See id. 117 We have thus attempted to harmonize a body of doctrine that has caused much disagreement in the federal and state courts. We realize, however, that our synthesis is by no means perfect. Only the Supreme Court knows where all the pieces belong. The Court will, we hope, provide more guidance with its decision in United States v. $405,089.23 U.S. Currency, 33 F.3d 1210 (9th Cir.1994), amended on denial of rehearing, 56 F.3d 41 (1995), cert. granted, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 763, 133 L.Ed.2d 709 (1996), or some other case in the near future. With this qualification in mind, we turn to the application of this test to Megan's Law.C. The Registration Provisions of Megan's Law Evaluated 118 The registration provisions of Megan's Law are relatively simple. They require repetitive and compulsive sex offenders who have completed a sentence for designated crimes to register with local law enforcement. Because Artway meets these requirements, he must register if he returns to New Jersey. In registering, Artway must provide information including descriptions of his appearance, his genetic markers, and his residence and work place to the chief law enforcement officer of the municipality in which he chooses to reside. He must periodically confirm his residence and notify law enforcement if he moves. Unlike the notification provisions of Megan's Law----which would require notice of Artway's crime, his description, his whereabouts, and, critically, the State's assessment of his future dangerousness to members of Artway's community----registration provides this information only to law enforcement agencies. The information is not open to public inspection.
119 The first prong of our test asks whether the legislature's actual purpose was to punish. See De Veau, 363 U.S. at 160, 80 S.Ct. at 1154-55. The only indication of actual legislative intent regarding the enacted version of Megan's Law is the following statement of purpose in the legislation itself: 1. The Legislature finds and declares: 120 a. The danger of recidivism posed by sex offenders and offenders who commit other predatory acts against children, and the dangers posed by persons who prey on others as a result of mental illness, require a system of registration that will permit law enforcement officials to identify and alert the public when necessary for the public safety. 121 b. A system of registration of sex offenders and offenders who commit other predatory acts against children will provide law enforcement with additional information critical to preventing and promptly resolving incidents involving sexual abuse and missing persons. 122 N.J.S.A. 2C:7-1. This passage suggests that the legislature's actual purpose was not punishment. It speaks of identify[ing] and alert[ing] the public to enhance safety and preventing and promptly resolving incidents. Protecting the public and preventing crimes are the types of purposes De Veau found regulatory and not punitive. 363 U.S. at 160, 80 S.Ct. at 1154-55. 123 The only other legislative history, a statement in the bill as introduced in the New Jersey Senate, buttresses the conclusion that the legislature's intent was not to punish. The danger posed by the presence of a sex offender who has committed violent acts against children requires a system of notification to protect the public safety and welfare of the community. Senate Bill No. 14 (introduced September 12, 1994). The section literally speaks of notification, but if the legislature's actual purpose in notification was remedial, it is hard to imagine that its purpose in the predicate and less harsh step of registration was punitive. 124 The circumstances of this enactment, which generated such sparse legislative history, give us pause. Megan's Law was rushed to the Assembly floor as an extraordinary measure, skipping committee consideration and debate entirely. It is just these sudden and strong passions to which men are exposed that the Framers designed the Ex Post Facto and Bill of Attainder Clauses to protect against. Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 137-38, 3 L.Ed. 162 (1810). Nevertheless, the evidence we do have of actual legislative intent points to a non-punitive purpose.
125 The objective purpose prong asks three related questions. First, we must discern whether the law can be explained solely by a remedial purpose. See Halper, 490 U.S. at 448, 109 S.Ct. at 1901-02. Registration is a common and long-standing regulatory technique with a remedial purpose. See, e.g., New York v. Zimmerman, 278 U.S. 63, 49 S.Ct. 61, 73 L.Ed. 184 (1928) (registration of membership corporations and associations permissible); United States v. Kahriger, 345 U.S. 22, 73 S.Ct. 510, 97 L.Ed. 754 (1953) (registration of professional gamblers permissible), overruled on other grounds by Marchetti v. United States, 390 U.S. 39, 88 S.Ct. 697, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 74 S.Ct. 808, 98 L.Ed. 989 (1954) (registration of lobbyists permissible). 28 One need look no further than the Selective Service to find a nonpunitive registration system for individuals. See Gillette v. United States, 401 U.S. 437, 91 S.Ct. 828, 28 L.Ed.2d 168 (1971) (sustaining selective service system against claim that it violated free exercise). 126 Here, the solely remedial purpose of helping law enforcement agencies keep tabs on these offenders fully explains requiring certain sex offenders to register. Registration may allow officers to prevent future crimes by intervening in dangerous situations. Like the agent who must endure the snow to fetch the soupmeat, the registrant may face some unpleasantness from having to register and update his registration. But the remedial purpose of knowing the whereabouts of sex offenders fully explains the registration provision just as the need for dinner fully explains the trip out into the night. And the means chosen--registration and law enforcement notification only--is not excessive in any way. Registration, therefore, is certainly reasonably related to a legitimate goal: allowing law enforcement to stay vigilant against possible re-abuse. 127 Second, we must consider history, and registration does not resemble punishment through a historical analysis. Artway spends much of his brief chronicling the historical understanding of public shame as punishment. Early forms of punishment contained strong elements of gross public humiliation .... Physical punishments ... were carried out publicly in ceremonial fashion [because it was] intended that the victim should be humiliated, for degradation figured largely in all contemporary theories of punishment. Jon A. Brilliant, Note, The Modern Day Scarlet Letter: A Critical Analysis of Modern Probation Conditions, 1989 Duke L.J. 1357, 1360-61 (internal quotations omitted); see also Ex Parte Wilson, 114 U.S. 417, 428, 5 S.Ct. 935, 940, 29 L.Ed. 89 (1885) (cataloguing punishments that consist principally in their ignominy as set forth in Blackstone's Commentaries); Crime and Punishment in American History 40 (explaining that humiliating punishments were historically intended to serve as deterrents). 128 In particular, Artway argues that Megan's Law is analogous to that most famous badge of punishment: the Scarlet Letter. There can be no outrage ... against our common nature,----whatever be the delinquencies of the individual,----no outrage more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame; as it was the essence of this punishment to do. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter 63-64 (Random House 1950) (1850). Like the Scarlet Letter, Artway contends, Megan's Law results in public ostracism and opprobrium: it would subject him to potential vigilantism, impair his opportunities to work, and damage his abilities to develop and maintain stable relationships. In his submission, its remedial purpose----to protect the public from him----seeks to brand him as an outcast. Such a shunning by one's community is the essence of historical punishment, Artway contends. 129 Artway's argument has considerable force, but the notification issue is not before us. We evaluate only registration, and that provision bears little resemblance to the Scarlet Letter. Registration simply requires Artway to provide a package of information to local law enforcement; registration does not involve public notification. Without this public element, Artway's analogy fails. The Scarlet Letter and other punishments of shame and ignominy rely on the disgrace of an individual before his community. The act of registering with a discrete government entity, which is not authorized to release that information to the community at large (except in emergencies), cannot be compared to public humiliation. The officers who constitute local law enforcement, even if they are from Artway's area, would constitute only a de minimis portion of that community. And their ready access to criminal history information is an integral part of their jobs, rather than an extraordinary event likely to trigger opprobrium. 130 Artway relies on Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 30 S.Ct. 544, 54 L.Ed. 793 (1910), to establish that even registration is punishment. It does not aid his case. Weems struck down as cruel and unusual punishment a Philippine law that imposed horrible punishments for falsification of public documents. Id. at 363, 30 S.Ct. at 547-48. Any false entry, even if unintentional and with no ill effect, triggered the cadena temporal. Id. This punishment imposed hard and painful labor for a period from twelve years and a day to twenty years, shackled at the wrist and the ankle, with no access to family or loved ones, the extinguishment of civil rights while serving the sentence, perpetual disqualification from political rights, such as holding office, and surveillance. Id. at 363-64, 30 S.Ct. at 548. 131 The Weems Court confronted a different issue from the one in this case. The Court held that this harsh punishment as a whole was cruel and unusual for the relatively minor offense involved. Id. at 382, 30 S.Ct. at 555. And the surveillance statute that made up a minor part of the total punishment differed from Megan's Law in at least one significant respect: the unfortunate offender in Weems was required to obtain written permission before he could move. See id. at 363, 30 S.Ct. at 547-48. Given this larger context, the Court's dictum about the harshness of surveillance hardly establishes that registration is punishment. 132 Finally, because registration historically is a regulatory technique with a salutary purpose, any incidental purpose to deter future offenses by past sex offenders will not invalidate it under Kurth Ranch.
133 The final prong examines whether the effects----or sting----of a measure is so harsh as a matter of degree that it constitutes punishment. See Morales, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1603. The caselaw does not tell us where the line falls that divides permissible from impermissible effects, but we know the matter of degree is somewhere between imprisonment and revocation of citizenship on the one hand, and loss of a profession or benefits on the other. Compare Miller v. Florida, 482 U.S. 423, 107 S.Ct. 2446, 96 L.Ed.2d 351 (1987) (increased incarceration is punishment) and Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958) (revoking citizenship is punishment) with De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 80 S.Ct. 1146, 4 L.Ed.2d 1109 (1960) (forbidding work as union official not punishment); Hawker v. New York, 170 U.S. 189, 18 S.Ct. 573, 42 L.Ed. 1002 (1898) (revoking medical license is not punishment) and Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 80 S.Ct. 1367, 4 L.Ed.2d 1435 (1960) (terminating social security benefits not punishment). 29 134 Artway marshals strong reasons that notification would have devastating effects. In addition to the ostracism that is part of its very design, notification subjects him to possible vigilante reprisals and loss of employment. And unlike the mere fact of his past conviction, which might be learned from an employment questionnaire or public records, notification under Megan's Law features the State's determination----based overwhelmingly on past conduct----that the prior offender is a future danger to the community. 30 We reemphasize, however, that as forceful as Artway's arguments seem to be, the issue of notification is not ripe at this time. 135 On the other hand, registration, the only phase of Megan's Law upon which we may pass judgment, has little impact. Most of the information is already available in the public record. It is disclosed only to law enforcement, which has ready access to this criminal history. And, unlike notification, the information contains no assessment by the State that Artway is a future danger. Therefore, this impact, even coupled with the registrant's inevitable kowtow to law enforcement officials, cannot be said to have an effect so draconian that it constitutes punishment in any way approaching incarceration. It is less harsh than losing a profession or benefits. 136 While there doubtless are some unpleasant consequences of registration----it is possible that police will leak information or engage in official harassment----we must presume that law enforcement will obey the law. Moreover, Artway, who of course bears the burden of proof to invalidate a statute on constitutional grounds, presents no evidence in this record of dire consequences flowing from registration. D. Summary of Registration Claims 137 Analyzing the registration provisions of Megan's Law under the (1) actual purpose, (2) objective purpose, and (3) effects prongs of our punishment test, we conclude that registration under Megan's Law does not constitute punishment under any measure of the term. Hence, it does not offend the Ex Post Facto, Double Jeopardy, or Bill of Attainder Clauses. Therefore, although our analysis differs from that employed by the district court and the Supreme Court of New Jersey, we agree with their conclusion regarding registration.