Court Opinion

ID: 9636418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:28:11.928954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:45.527187
License: Public Domain

STEIN, J.,
dissenting.
The Court’s opinion carefully explains the considerations and events that induced the Legislature to enact and the Governor to sign the Registration Law, L.1994, c. 133, (codified at N.J.SA 2C:7-1 to -5), and the Community Notification Law, L.1994, c. 128, (codified at N.J.SA 2C:7-6 to -11), those statutes being commonly known as “Megan’s Law.” A federal statute, enacted as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub.L. No. 103-322, encouraged states to adopt mandatory registration requirements for persons convicted of sexually violent offenses or certain prescribed offenses against minors. 42 U.S.CA § 14071(a)(1)(A). The tragic murder of Megan Kanka prompted widespread public concern about the danger posed by released convicted sex offenders. The Legislature responded swiftly, enacting the statutes at issue in this appeal.
The relationship between the statutory provisions and the concerns that led to their adoption is self-evident. The registration requirements enable law-enforcement officials to identify and acquire information concerning persons obligated to register because of prior convictions or adjudications of delinquency based on commission of a sex offense. The Community Notification Law, combined with the Attorney General’s Guidelines, authorizes the dissemination, to prescribed organizations and members of the community likely to encounter a sex offender, of information concerning an offender, including a photograph, a description of the underlying offense, residence address, place of employment, and vehicle license-plate number. The extent of notification is determined by a three-tier classification procedure. Obviously, the notification provisions of the statute and Guidelines are intended to protect the public by familiarizing those who receive notice with sufficient details about the offender’s appearance, prior con*112vietion, and other data to permit them to take appropriate precautions.
The Court holds that the Registration and Community Notification Laws do not violate the Ex Post Facto, Double Jeopardy, or Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clauses of either the Federal or State Constitutions. Substantially enhancing the protections afforded by the statutes as enacted, the Court properly concludes that the impact of the statutes on those subject to Tier Two and Three notification sufficiently implicates liberty interests to mandate the availability of due-process safeguards. The Court accordingly conditions its decision to sustain the constitutionality of the statutes on the requirement of judicial review of a prosecutor’s decision to impose Tier Two and Tier Three notification, that judicial review extending to the means of implementing notification selected by the prosecutor. I am in full agreement with that aspect of the Court’s decision.
The Court also has mandated that the scope of notification required by the Attorney General’s Guidelines be limited. The Court does not acknowledge that the limitations it imposes are prompted by constitutional considerations, but that inference is inescapable: The broader the scope of community notification, the greater the punitive impact that notification will impose on the offender. The limitations imposed by the Court are salutary, but are insufficient to address the constitutional infirmities in the Community Notification Law.
The Legislature’s rationale for enacting these statutes obviates any inquiry about the purpose for their retroactive application to those sex offenders whose offenses had been committed before the statutes were enacted, as well as to those prior offenders who had fully served sentences imposed on them for their offenses and had returned to their communities. If the Registration and Notification Laws did not apply to those offenders their effectiveness would be severely limited, and as a practical matter, delayed for many years. Nevertheless, despite its obvious importance to the statutory scheme, the retroactive application of the notification *113statute to prior offenders poses, in my view, a fundamental constitutional impediment to its validity.
The Constitution’s prohibition of bills of attainder and Ex Post Facto laws is not to be taken lightly. As the Court acknowledges, “These are towering constitutional provisions of great importance to individual dignity, freedom, and liberty.” Ante at 43, 662 A.2d at 388. James Madison emphasized their fundamental role in our Constitution:
Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. The two former are expressly prohibited by the declarations prefixed to some of the State Constitutions, and all of them are prohibited by the spirit and scope of these fundamental charters. Our own experience has taught us nevertheless, that additional fences against these dangers ought not to be omitted. Very properly therefore have the Convention added this constitutional bulwark in favor of personal security and private rights.
[The Federalist No. 44, at 301 (James Madison) (Jacob E. Cooke ed., 1961).]
The Supreme Court summarized the meaning of the Ex Post Facto Clause in Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167, 169-70, 46 S.Ct. 68, 68, 70 L.Ed. 216, 217 (1925):
It is settled, by decisions of this court so well known that their citation may be dispensed with, that any statute which punishes as a crime an act previously committed, which was innocent when done, which makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission, or which deprives one charged with crime of any defense available according to law at the time when the act was committed, is prohibited as ex post facto.
[Id. at 169-70, 46 S.Ct. at 68.]
Because the Community Notification Law “makes more burdensome the punishment for a crime, after its commission,” I conclude that that law, despite its understandable objectives, violates the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws. The Court concludes otherwise, determining that the inevitable deterrent and punitive effects of the Notification Law cannot constitute punishment because the law “can fairly be characterized as remedial, both in its purpose and implementing provisions.” Ante at 43, 662 A.2d at 388. I disagree with the Court’s conclusion, as well as with the standard it applies for determining whether the Notifica*114tion Law imposes enhanced punishment on a sex offender whose crime had been committed before enactment of the law.
I
Before addressing the ex post facto issue, I briefly summarize (1) the pertinent statutory provisions, as construed by the Court, (2) the provisions of the federal statute and those of various state statutes that deal with registration and notification concerning sex offenders, and (3) the references contained in the record that might be pertinent to the question whether the Notification law imposes punishment.
A
The Registration Law is designed to “permit law enforcement officials to identify and alert the public when necessary for the public safety,” N.J.S.A 2C:7-la, and to “provide law enforcement with additional information critical to preventing and promptly resolving incidents involving sexual abuse and missing persons.” N.J.S.A. 2C:7-lb.
The Registration Law applies retroactively to certain offenders. Persons convicted, adjudicated delinquent, or found not guilty by reason of insanity (hereinafter collectively referred to as “convicted”) of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, kidnapping pursuant to N.J.S.A 2C:13-lc(2), or an attempt to commit any of those crimes, “regardless of the date of the commission of the offense or the date of conviction,” must register if the court at sentencing determined that “the offender’s conduct was characterized by a pattern of repetitive, compulsive behavior.” N.J.S.A 2C:7-2b(l) (emphasis added). (If a court makes such a finding, the sex offender may be sentenced to the Adult Diagnostic Treatment Center “for a program of specialized treatment for his mental condition.” N.J.S.A 2C:47-3b.)
*115All persons convicted on or after the effective date of the Registration Law of one of those offenses, as well as other offenses including endangering the welfare of a child, luring or enticing, criminal sexual contact if the victim is a minor, criminal restraint, and false imprisonment, must register. N.J.S.A 2C:7-2b(2). Moreover, registration is mandatory for all persons convicted of one of those crimes, regardless of the date of conviction, who were serving a sentence of incarceration, probation, parole, or other form of community supervision on the effective date of the Registration Law. Ibid. Persons who were convicted of similar sex offenses under federal law or the laws of other states also must register. N.J.S.A 2C:7-2b(3).
An offender who is required to register must provide his or her fingerprints and sign a statement that includes the offender’s name, Social Security number, age, physical description, sex, date of birth, address of legal or temporary residence, date and place of employment, date and place of each conviction, and a brief description of the crime or crimes for which registration is required. N.J.SA 2C:7-4b(l), (2). The offender must further provide any “other information that the Attorney General deems necessary to assess risk of future commission of a crime,” including criminal and correction records, nonprivileged personnel, treatment, and abuse registry records, and evidentiary genetic markers if available. ' N.J.SA. 2C:7-4b(3). The form approved by the Attorney General also requires the offender to provide a photograph and to identify the vehicle he or she uses and its license-plate number. An offender no longer in custody must register with the chief law-enforcement officer in the municipality in which he or she resides. N.J.S.A. 2C:7-2c(4). That information is forwarded to the county prosecutor, who then forwards the information to the Superintendent of State Police, who maintains a central registry. N.J.S.A. 2C:7-4c, d. Those records are open to any state or federal law-enforcement agency. N.J.SA 2C:7-5a.
Offenders whose conduct was characterized by a pattern of repetitive and compulsive behavior must verify their address with *116local law enforcement every ninety days, while other registrants must do so annually. N.J.S.A 2C:7-2e. That obligation lasts for the offender’s lifetime, unless that person proves to a court that he or she did not commit an offense for fifteen years following conviction or release from a correctional facility, whichever is later, and that he or she “is not likely to pose a threat to the safety of others.” N.J.S.A 2C:7-2f. If an offender moves, he or she must re-register with law enforcement in the offender’s new municipality of residence no less than ten days before he or she intends to reside at the new address. N.J.SA 2C:7-2d. Failure to register in accordance with the Registration Law is a fourth-degree crime. N.J.S.A 2C:7-2a.
The Community Notification Law as interpreted by the Court requires local chiefs of police to implement notification for all sex offenders obligated to register. (Although N.J.S.A 2C:7-5a authorizes notification for all registrants, while N.J.S.A 2C:7-6 requires notification concerning registrants to be released from incarceration after the effective date of the laws, the Court construes the statutory scheme to mandate notification for “all those required to register.” Ante at 22 n. 4, 662 A.2d at 378 n. 4.)
The Community Notification Law provides the Attorney General, after consultation with an advisory council established pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:7-11, with broad powers to adopt guidelines and procedures to effectuate the notification requirements. The law requires the Attorney General to adopt guidelines that provide for three levels of notification (referred to as tiers in the Attorney General’s Guidelines) depending on the risk of re-offense:
(1) If risk of re-offense is low, law enforcement agencies likely to encounter the person registered shall be notified;
(2) If risk of re-offense is moderate, organizations in the community including schools, religious and youth organizations shall be notified in accordance with the Attorney General’s guidelines, in addition to the notice required by paragraph (1) of this subsection;
(3) If risk of re-offense is high, the public shall be notified through means in accordance with the Attorney General’s guidelines designed to reach members of *117the public likely to encounter the person registered, in addition to the notice required by paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection.
[N.J.S.A 2C:7-8c.]
All offenders, no matter how low the risk of re-offense, are subject to at least Tier One notification.
The law provides a nonexclusive list of factors that must be considered in assessing the risk of re-offense:
(1) Conditions of release that minimize risk of re-offense, including but not limited to whether the offender is under supervision of probation or parole; receiving counseling, therapy or treatment; or residing in a home situation that provides guidance and supervision;
(2) Physical conditions that minimize risk of re-offense, including but not limited to advanced age or debilitating illness;
(3) Criminal history factors indicative of high risk of re-offense, including:
(a) Whether the offender’s conduct was found to be characterized by repetitive and compulsive behavior;
(b) Whether the offender served the maximum term;
(c) Whether the offender committed the sex offense against a child.
(4) Other criminal history factors to be considered in determining risk, including:
(a) The relationship between the offender and the victim;
(b) Whether the offense involved the use of a weapon, violence, or infliction of serious bodily injury;
(c) The number, date and nature of prior offenses;
(5) Whether psychological or psychiatric profiles indicate a risk of recidivism;
(6) The offender’s response to treatment;
(7) Recent behavior, including behavior while confined or while under supervision in the community as well as behavior in the community following service of sentence; and
(8) Recent threats against persons or expressions of intent to commit additional crimes.
[N.J.S.A 2C:7-8b.]
Pursuant to statutory authority, the Attorney General has added other factors to assess the risk of re-offense. As the majority points out, “[t]he Guidelines’ list of factors, however, fails to include several required by statute,” ante at 24 n. 5, 662 A.2d at 379 n. 5, including the inquiry into the offender’s “behavior in the community following service of sentence,” N.J.S.A 2C:7-8b(7), which could point to a higher or lower risk assessment. Moreover, the Guidelines use the statutory factor that inquires *118“[w]hether psychological or psychiatric profiles indicate a risk of recidivism,” N.J.S.A 2C:7-8b(5), in a nonneutral manner; that is, that criterion is used to determine whether Tier Two or Tier Three is appropriate, but not whether Tier One notification should apply. However, the Court notes that the Guideline’s inconsistencies with the Community Notification Law “are simply the product of the extreme time pressures imposed by the laws[ ] [and] should be appropriately revised in accordance with [the Court’s] opinion.” Ante at 24 n. 5, 662 A.2d at 379 n. 5.
Although the Community Notification Law authorized county prosecutors and law-enforcement officials to assess the risk of re-offense, N.J.S.A 2C:7-8d(l), and therefore the level or tier of notification that applied, the Court concludes that judicial review of that determination through a summary proceeding is required prior to Tier Two or Tier Three notification. See ante at 29-37, 662 A.2d at 382-85.
With respect to Tier Two and Tier Three notification, the Court restricts the scope of notification provided under both the statute and the Guidelines. Although the statutory provision authorizing Tier Two notification contains no such language, the Court limits notification to organizations in the community that are “likely to encounter” the offender, a restriction present in the statutory authorization of both Tier One and Tier Three. See ante at 35, 662 A.2d at 384. The Court interprets “likely to encounter” to mean neither “ ‘possibly’ ” nor “ ‘probably1 ” but rather “ ‘having a fair chance to encounter,’” ante at 36, 662 A.2d at 385, and reasons that “[t]he factor that will ordinarily be critical to a determination of ‘likely to encounter’ is geography — how close is the institution or organization, in the case of Tier Two notification, to the offender’s residence or place of work or school.” Id. at 37, 662 A.2d at 385. Moreover, consistent with the Attorney General’s interpretation, the Court further restricts Tier Two notification “to those organizations that actually are in charge of the care or supervision of children or women.” Ante at 29, 662 A.2d at 382.
*119Under the Guidelines, organizations receiving Tier Two notification are provided a notification form containing the following information: the offender’s name, address, place of employment and/or schooling, a recent photograph, physical description, the offense for which he or she was convicted, and a description of the vehicle he or she uses and its license-plate number. The Court requires that those organizations receive a notice that “shall specifically direct them not to notify anyone else.” Ante at 35, 662 A.2d at 384.
Addressing Tier Three notification, the Court determines that the Guidelines exceed the notification authorized by the statute. The Court concludes that the Guideline’s notification method consisting of “community meetings, speeches in schools and religious congregations” is not sufficiently a “means * * * designed to reach members of the public likely to encounter the person registered.” N.J.S.A. 2C:7-8c(3). Notification could, however, be provided “to a group carefully selected to include only those ‘likely to encounter’ the offender.” Ante at 35, 662 A.2d at 385. The Court determines that Tier Three notification “includes the immediate neighborhood of the offender’s residence and not just the people next door[,] * * * all schools within the municipality, depending on its size, * * * [and] schools and other institutions in adjacent municipalities depending upon their distance from the offender’s residence, place of work, or school.” Ante at 36, 662 A.2d at 385.
Under the Guidelines, the information conveyed to the public through Tier Three notification is the same as Tier Two. The Guidelines, moreover, stress the need to warn against vigilante activity and to advise the public that allegations of criminal conduct perpetrated against the offender will be carefully investigated and, where appropriate, criminally prosecuted.
B
“‘The fact that a practice is followed by a large number of states is not conclusive in a decision as to whether that practice *120accords with due process, but it is plainly worth considering in determining whether the practice “offends some principle of justice so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental.’”” Schall v. Martin, 467 U.S. 253, 268, 104 S.Ct. 2403, 2412, 81 L.Ed.2d 207, 219 (1984) (quoting Leland v. Oregon, 343 U.S. 790, 798, 72 S.Ct. 1002, 1007, 96 L.Ed. 1302, 1309 (1952) (quoting Snyder v. Massachusetts, 291 U.S. 97, 105, 54 S.Ct. 330, 332, 78 L.Ed. 674, 677 (1934))). Accordingly, an examination of the federal law and of the laws of other states pertaining to registration of sex offenders — specifically, whether the statutes apply retroactively and the extent to which they provide for community notification — is useful in assessing the validity of New Jersey’s law.
The federal statute, 42 U.S.C.A. § 14071, was passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and codified under Subchapter VI — Crimes Against Children. To be entitled to funds under 42 U.S.C.A § 3756 (providing funds for drug control), states must comply with 42 U.S.C A § 14071, which mandates that states implement programs requiring “a person who is convicted of a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor or who is convicted of a sexually violent offense to register” with the state in which he or she resides. 42 U.S.C A § 14071(a)(1)(A), (f)(2). The federal statute does not require that states apply their sex-offender registration statutes retroactively to offenses committed before the state law was enacted, reflecting a congressional determination that, despite the enhanced effectiveness of retroactive registration statutes, states would be in full compliance with federal law by adopting statutes that apply only prospectively. Moreover, the federal law is more restrictive regarding the personal information about the offender that may be released. Indeed, “the designated State law enforcement agency and any local law enforcement agency authorized by the State agency” may release only “relevant information that is necessary to protect the public concerning a specific person required to register under” 42 U.S.C. A. § 14071. 42 U.S.C A § 14071(d)(3).
*121In respect of the state sex-offender registration statutes, ten states have not adopted sex-offender registration laws: Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York,1 North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Vermont. Of the forty states that have adopted sex-offender registration laws (which includes New Jersey), five states do not apply their laws retroactively: Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and Kansas. In addition, of those states that have adopted sex-offender registration laws, twenty states, excluding New Jersey, provide for some ■type of community notification: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington. The following nineteen states do not provide for any type of community notification: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Excluding New Jersey, eighteen states have notification provisions that apply retroactively: Alaska,2 Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana,3 Maine, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennes*122see, Virginia, Washington. Most important, none of the states with retroactive notice provisions provides for notification as extensive as that mandated by New Jersey’s statute. See Ariz.Rev. StatAnn. § 13-3825 (1995) (providing that ‘‘chief law enforcement officer * * * shall notify th[e] community of the [offender’s release to the community, if appropriate, pursuant to guidelines established by the community notification guidelines committee”); Conn.Gen.Stat.Ann. § 54-102r(g) (West 1995) (providing that “the information * * * shall be confidential and not subject to disclosure to any person or agency other than to law enforcement agencies * * * or to any specific person if such disclosure is deemed necessary by the chief of police * * * or resident state trooper * * * to protect said person from any [registering offender]”); La.Rev.StatAnn. § 15.546.A (1995) (authorizing criminal-justice agencies “to release relevant and necessary information regarding sex offenders to the public when the release of the information is necessary for public protection”); MontCode Ann. § 46-23-507 (1995) (“Information in the register * * * is confidential * * * except * * * if the department believes that release of information concerning [a sexual offender who is to be released from state prison] is necessary for public protection, the department shall petition the district court * * * for an order allowing the department to release relevant and necessary register information regarding the inmate to the public * * * if the court finds that the information is necessary for public protection”); N.D.CentCode § 12.1-32-15.10 (1995) (stating that “[r]elevant and necessary registration information may be disclosed to the public by a law enforcement agency if the agency determines that the individual registered * * * is a public risk and disclosure of the registration information is necessary for public protection”); Or. Rev.Stat. §§ 181.508(3), .509(1) (1994) (stating that if agency determines that notification is necessary, it “may use any method of communication that the agency determines is appropriate,” including distribution of several identifying pieces of information, and that “[u]nless the agency determines that release of the information would substantially interfere with the treatment or rehabilita*123tion of the supervised person, an agency * * * shall make any information regarding the person that the agency determines is appropriate * * * available to any other person upon request”); Tenn.Code Ann. § 40-39-106(c) (1994) (providing that State Bureau of Investigation or local law-enforcement agency “may release relevant information deemed necessary to protect the public concerning a specific sexual offender who is required to register”); Wash.Rev.Code Ann. § 4.24.550 (West 1995) (stating that (1) “[p]ublic agencies are authorized to release relevant and necessary information regarding sex offenders to the public when the release of the information is necessary for public protection,” and (2) “[l]ocal law enforcement agencies and officials who decide to release information * * * shall make a good faith effort to notify the public and residents at least fourteen days before the sex offender is released”).
Furthermore, the remaining ten states that have retroactive notification provisions either do not require law enforcement to notify the public, or authorize far more limited public notification than that mandated by New Jersey’s statute. See Alaska Stat. § 18.65.087 (1994) (stating that information contained in central registry “is confidential and not subject to public disclosure except as to” specified information); Cal.Penal Code § 290.4(a), (b) (West 1995) (providing (1) for “900” number that people may call to determine whether “a named individual is listed,” if that caller produces several pieces of information identifying the offender, and (2) for habitual sex-offender subdirectory containing offender’s name, photograph, and physical description, which people may access if they have articulable purpose); Ga.Code Ann. § 42-9-44.1 (Michie 1995) (providing that sex-offender registry “shall be open to public inspection” only while offender is on parole); Idaho Code § 9-340(ll)(f) (1995) (stating that “all information provided to a law enforcement agency for sex offender registration * * * shall be available upon request to a law enforcement agency * * * [and that the offender’s name, and a description of his or her offenses are available] to any person upon written request”); Ind.Code Ann. § 5-2-12-11 (West 1995) (stating that “sex offend*124er registry available on a computer disk * * * [and] [e]ach time the registry is updated,” all school corporations, nonpublic schools, child-care facilities, and state agencies that license persons to work with children, the State personnel department, and other entities providing services to children or requesting registry will receive one “paper copy of the sex offender registry”); Me.Rev. StatAnn. tit. 16, § 615 (West 1994) (stating that description of person charged and written evidence relating to criminal charge “may be disseminated to any person for any purpose”); Nev.Rev. Stat. § 207.155 (1993) (requiring sheriff to provide registration information “to the board of trustees of the county school district in which the sex offender expects to reside” and permitting the board of trustees to “release that the data to any teacher or other educational personnel * * * if it determines that the release of the data is reasonably necessary for public protection”); Okla.Stat. Ann. tit. 57, § 584.E (West 1995) (providing that local law-enforcement officials “shall make its sex offender registry available” to schools, child-care facilities, licensed State agencies, State personnel office, and other entities that provide services to children and that request the registry); S.D.Codified Laws Ann. §§ 22-22-33, -34 (1995) (stating that sex-offender registration files are “not open to inspection by the public or any other person other than a law enforcement officer,” except that files are available “to any regional or national registry of sex offenders”); Va.Code Ann. § 19.2-390.1 (Michie 1995) (prohibiting dissemination of sex-offender registry information except on request and only to authorized officers or employees of schools, child-welfare agencies, or day-care centers).
C
At this time, the future effects of “Megan’s Law” on those subject to community and individual notification are not possible to discern. The only relevant information before the Court consists of newspaper accounts of actions taken against two sex offenders who were subject to the registration and notification *125provisions. Although I do not suggest that those accounts are typical of the character and nature of the response of the public to the discovery that a sex offender lives among them, I include them to reflect fully the record before the Court.
On December 27, 1994, residents of Phillipsburg were informed of the whereabouts of a recently released sex offender. This individual was “the first Warren County resident subject to community notification under ‘Megan’s Law.’” Donna M. Weston, Vigilantes Beat Wrong Man After Rapist’s Release, The Trentonian, Jan. 11, 1995, at 5. Law-enforcement authorities provided neighbors with the address at which the offender was to reside and distributed photographs of him. On January 8, 1995, “[a] father and his son broke into [that] Phillipsburg row house * * * looking for [the] released child molester who had been identified by the police.” Iver Peterson, Mix-Ups and Worse Arising from Sex-Offender Notification, N.Y. Times, Jan. 12, 1995, at Bl, B6. Once inside, the two “attacked a man they thought was a rapist.” Sandy McClure, Christie: Vigilantism Intolerable, The Trentonian, Jan. 12, 1995, at 4. “But the two ended up attacking the wrong man,” John Connolly & Phyllis Plitch, “Megan’s Law” Brings Snafus, Vigilantism, The Trentonian, Jan. 12, 1995, at 4, allegedly assaulting a forty-one-year-old truck driver who was also staying in the house. The severity of the beating required the man to be hospitalized. Weston, supra, The Trentonian, at 5.
Another example also involves “one of the first people to fall under the law’s strictures.” Peterson, supra, N.Y. Times, at B6. On January 1, 1995, Carlos Diaz was released from prison after serving a sentence for rape. Diaz informed authorities that upon his release he intended to reside in Passaic with his mother. Fredrick Kunkle, Rapist’s Plan to Live in Passaic Sparks Demonstration, The Record, Jan. 6, 1995, at A-ll. Diaz sought a preliminary injunction in federal district court, seeking to enjoin the dissemination to schools and community groups of Tier Two level information by law-enforcement officials until he had been afforded the opportunity to enforce his constitutional rights. The *126district court granted the preliminary injunction on January 3, 1995, determining that Diaz demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits and faced the danger of irreparable injury.
Although the preliminary injunction delayed law-enforcement officials from implementing the provisions of Megan’s Law, the Guardian Angels, a New York-based civilian group, organized a community protest outside the residence of Diaz’s mother. “And up and down the streets, Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa and his men walked yesterday, handing out fliers with a large photo of Diaz, the warning ‘BEWARE’ in big black block letters and a phone number to call if Diaz [was] spotted.” Rosemarie Ross, Rapist, Beware: Residents’ Fear Turns to Anger, Revenge, The North Jersey Herald & News, Jan. 6,1995, at Al, A4. “Hundreds of * * * students streamed down [the street] * * * clutching pictures of convicted rapist Carlos Diaz, handed to them by Guardian Angels who descended on the city to rally in support of Megan’s Law.” Ron Day, Rapist, Beware: Angels Hand Out His Photo in Passaic, The North Jersey Herald & News, Jan. 6,1995, at Al. “Some * * * residents sounded like would-be vigilantes * * * hinting they might take the law into their own hands if Diaz appeared.” Id. at A4. Two young men, residents of Passaic, stated: “We’re waiting for him to come down[.] * * * We’re going to beat him up. He can go back upstairs, come down, we’ll beat him up again.” Ross, supra, The North Jersey Herald & News, at Al, A4. “Sliwa suggested that convicted criminals deserve to be treated as outcasts, and that their ostracism would deter others. ‘Guilt — there should be a stigma,’ Sliwa said.” Kunkle, supra, The Record, at A-ll. Sliwa stated, “Let the criminal have a taste of being the victim.” Day, supra, The North Jersey Herald & News, at Al.
II
In Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 137-38, 3 L.Ed. 162, 178 (1810), Chief Justice John Marshall explained the concerns *127that led to the constitutional provision declaring that “[N]o state shall pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts”:
Whatever respect might have been felt for the state sovereignties, it is not to be disguised that the framers of the constitution viewed, with some apprehension, the violent acts [that] might grow out of the feelings of the moment; and that the people of the United States, in adopting that instrument, have manifested a determination to shield themselves and their property from the effects of those sudden and strong passions to which men are exposed. The restrictions on the legislative power of the states are obviously founded in this sentiment; and the constitution of the United States contains what may be deemed a bill of rights for the people of each state.
The Supreme Court’s more recent opinions also have confirmed that “the Ex Post Facto Clauses were included in the Constitution * * * to assure that federal and state legislatures were restrained from enacting arbitrary or vindictive legislation.” Miller v. Florida, 482 U.S. 423, 429, 107 S.Ct. 2446, 2451, 96 L.Ed.2d 351, 359 (1987). The Court also identified a second concern underlying the ex post facto prohibition: assuring that statutes afford fair warning of their effect and thereby justify reliance on their meaning. The Court observed that “central to the ex post facto prohibition is a concern for ‘the lack of fair notice and governmental restraint when the legislature increases punishment beyond what was prescribed when the crime was consummated.’ ” Id. at 430, 107 S.Ct. at 2451, 96 L.Ed.2d at 360 (quoting Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 30, 101 S.Ct. 960, 965, 67 L.Ed.2d 17, 24 (1981)).
According to Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386, 1 L.Ed. 648 (1798), the earliest case to construe the Ex Post Facto Clause, the prohibition of the clause encompasses a “law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed.” Id. at 390, 1 L.Ed. at 650. A more recent formulation of the scope of the prohibition is essentially consistent with Calder: “Legislatures may not retroactively alter the definition of crimes or increase the punishment for criminal acts.” Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U.S. 37, 43, 110 S.Ct. 2715, 2719, 111 L.Ed.2d 30, 39 (1990). Undoubtedly, the Registration and Community Notification Laws apply retroactively to sex offenses committed before their enactment. Their retroactive *128application potentially affects every living person who has ever been convicted of a sex offense in this State “if the court found that the offender’s conduct was characterized by a pattern of repetitive, compulsive behavior.” N.J.S.A. 2C:7-2b(l). The critical issue is whether the actual effect of the notification statute’s retroactive application constitutes punishment within the meaning of the Ex Post Facto Clause.
The Court agrees with that statement of the decisive ex post facto issue, but adopts as the standard for resolving the issue a test that totally eliminates the necessity for any reasoned analysis concerning the punitive impact of the Community Notification Law, whether that punitive impact is consistent with historical concepts of punishment, or whether the probable functional effect of the notice mandated by the notification statute is so punitive as to constitute punishment. Rather, the Court’s inquiry both begins — and ends — with legislative intent. According to the Court, “a statute that can fairly be characterized as remedial, both in its purpose and implementing provisions, does not constitute punishment * * * simply because its impact, in part, may be punitive unless the only explanation for that impact is a punitive purpose: an intent to punish.” Ante at 43, 662 A.2d at 388.
The Court’s exclusive reliance on legislative intent as the test of punishment is misplaced, the decisions advocating that narrow and formalistic approach having been long since superseded. The appropriate standard extends significantly beyond legislative intent. “[I]n determining whether a particular civil sanction constitutes criminal punishment, it is the purposes actually served by the sanction in question, not the underlying nature of the proceeding giving rise to the sanction, that must be evaluated,” United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 447 n. 7, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 1901 n. 7, 104 L.Ed.2d 487, 501 n. 7 (1989). That standard requires that a court “assess[ ] the character of the actual sanctions imposed on the individual by the machinery of the state.” Id. at 447, 109 S.Ct. at 1901, 104 L.Ed.2d at 501.
*129The Court relies primarily on three United States Supreme Court decisions for the proposition that legislative intent determines whether a statute can be characterized as imposing punishment for ex post facto purposes, or in determining the applicability of the prohibition against double jeopardy and excessive fines. In Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958), the Court invalidated a provision of the Nationality Act of 1940 that mandated loss of citizenship for anyone convicted of and dishonorably discharged for wartime desertion. In determining whether the statute was regulatory or penal the Court noted that it “has generally based its determination upon the purpose of the statute.” Id. at 96, 78 S.Ct. at 595, 2 L.Ed.2d at 639. After concluding that “[t]he purpose of taking away citizenship from a convicted deserter is simply to punish him,” id. at 97, 78 S.Ct. at 596, 2 L.Ed.2d at 640, the plurality opinion concluded that the statute was invalid because it imposed cruel and unusual punishment. In De Veau v. Braisted, 363 U.S. 144, 80 S.Ct. 1146, 4 L.Ed.2d 1109 (1960), which concerned an ex post facto challenge to a New York law that prohibited unions from collecting dues if any union officer or agent was a convicted felon, the Court resolved the question of punishment by focusing on whether the legislative purpose was punitive or regulatory, concluding that it was regulatory. Id. at 160, 80 S.Ct. at 1155, 4 L.Ed.2d at 1120. Similarly, in Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 80 S.Ct. 1367, 4 L.Ed.2d 1435 (1960), which involved an ex post facto challenge to a provision of the Social Security Act mandating the termination of Nestor’s old-age benefits because he had been deported on the basis of his Communist Party membership, the Court in a five-four decision upheld the statute after determining that the legislative purpose was not punitive. Id. at 616-17, 80 S.Ct. at 1375-76, 4 L.Ed.2d at 1447-48.
Dissatisfaction with exclusive reliance on legislative intent for determining whether constitutionally prohibited punishment had been imposed was first expressed by Justice Frankfurter, concurring in United States ex rel. Marcus v. Hess, 317 U.S. 537, 63 S.Ct. 379, 87 L.Ed. 443 (1943), where the issue was whether a civil penalty following a criminal conviction constituted punishment in *130violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Justice Frankfurter observed:
The argument seems to run thus: Double jeopardy means attempting to punish criminally twice; this is not an attempt to punish criminally because it is a civil proceeding; it is a civil proceeding because, as a matter of “statutory construction,” it is a “civil sanction” which is being enforced here; and the sanction is “civil” because it is “remedial” and not “punitive” in nature.
Such dialectical subtleties may serve well enough for, purposes of explaining away uncritical language in earlier cases. * * * But they are too subtle when the problem is one of safeguarding the humane interests for the protection of which the double jeopardy clause was written into the Fifth Amendment.
[Id. at 553-54, 63 S.Ct. at 389, 87 L.Ed at 454.]
Beginning in 1963, the Court departed from its exclusive reliance on legislative intent for determining whether a statute imposed punishment, in favor of a broader standard. In Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 83 S.Ct. 554, 9 L.Ed.2d 644 (1963), the issue concerned the constitutionality of provisions of the Nationality Act of 1940 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, that mandated loss of citizenship for the offense of leaving or remaining outside the country to evade military service. The statutes were challenged as imposing punishment without due process, in that the prospective deportees were not accorded rights guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, including notice, compulsory process, confrontation, trial by jury and assistance of counsel. In determining that the sanction of deportation constituted punishment, the Court referred to “the tests traditionally applied to determine whether an Act of Congress is penal or regulatory,” id. at 168, 83 S.Ct. at 567, 9 L.Ed.2d at 660-61, consisting of the following factors:
Whether the sanction involves an affirmative disability or restraint, whether it has historically been regarded as a punishment, whether it comes into play only on a finding of scienter, whether its operation will promote the traditional aims of punishment — retribution and deterrence, whether the behavior to which it applies is already a crime, whether an alternative purpose to which it may rationally be connected is assignable for it, and whether it appears excessive in relation to the alternative purpose assigned * * *.
[Id at 168-69, 83 S.Ct. at 567-68, 9 L.Ed.2d at 661 (footnotes omitted.)]
Although the Court has subsequently pointed out that the seven-factor Mendozctr-Martinez test was developed to determine *131“whether a nominally civil penalty should be reclassified as criminal and the safeguards that attend a criminal prosecution should be required,” and not to determine “whether punishment is being imposed,” Austin v. United States, 509 U.S. -, - n. 6, 113 S.Ct. 2801, 2806 n. 6, 125 L.Ed.2d 488, 498 n. 6 (1993), the last two factors of Mendoza-Martinez consistently are referred to as a shorthand test for determining punishment. The brief for the United States as amicus curiae, for example, refers to the last two factors of Mendoza-Martinez as the Supreme Court’s two-part intent-effects test “to determine whether legislation imposes ‘punishment’ under the Ex Post Facto Clause and other constitutional provisions,” describing the test as, first, whether the legislature intended punishment and, if not, whether the restriction is rationally related to a legislative goal and not excessive in relation to that goal. Brief of United States at 29-30.
In 1965, the Court invoked an even broader analysis in resolving a constitutional challenge to a provision of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 that imposed criminal sanctions on Communist Party members who served as union officers or employees. In United States v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 85 S.Ct. 1707, 14 L.Ed.2d 484 (1965), the statute was attacked as an unconstitutional bill of attainder that imposed punishment without trial, the government responding that the congressional purpose was remedial and preventive rather than retributive: Congress’s aim was “not to punish Communists for what they have done in the past, but rather to keep them from positions where they will in the future be able to bring about undesirable events.” Id. at 457, 85 S.Ct. at 1719, 14 L.Ed.2d at 496. Rejecting the government’s argument that the punishment issue should be resolved as a question of statutory intent, the Court undertook an historical analysis to demonstrate that punishment frequently has been imposed for preventive purposes:
Historical considerations by no means compel restriction of the bill of attainder ban to instances of retribution. A number of English bills of attainder were enacted for preventive purposes — that is, the legislature made a judgment, undoubtedly based largely on past acts and associations (as § 504 is) that a given person or group was likely to cause trouble (usually, overthrow the government)
*132and therefore inflicted deprivations upon that person or group in order to keep it from bringing about the feared event. It is also clear that many of the early American bills attainting the Tories were passed in order to impede their effectively resisting the Revolution.
[Id. at 458-59, 85 S.Ct. at 1720, 14 L.Ed.2d at 497-98 (footnotes omitted).]
The Court in Brown invalidated the statute as an unconstitutional bill of attainder, relying in part on Cummings v. Missouri, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 277, 18 L.Ed. 356 (1867), in which the Court struck down amendments to the Missouri Constitution requiring members of various professions to take an oath swearing that they had not participated in the rebellion against the Union as a condition of practicing their professions, the Court in Cummings adopting a broad definition of punishment for bill-of-attainder and ex post facto purposes:
“The deprivation of any rights, civil or political, previously enjoyed, may be punishment, the circumstances attending and the causes of the deprivation determining this fact. Disqualification from office may be punishment, as in cases of conviction upon impeachment. Disqualification from the pursuits of a lawful avocation, or from positions of trust, or from the privilege of appearing in the courts, or acting as an executor, administrator, or guardian, may also, and often has been, imposed as punishment.”
[Brown, supra, 381 U.S. at 448, 85 S.Ct. at 1714, 14 L.Ed.2d at 491 (quoting Cummings, supra, 71 U.S. (4 Wall) at 320, 18 L.Ed. at 362).]
In 1977, the Court broadened its approach yet again, invoking historical analysis, functional evaluation, and legislative motivation to determine whether a federal statute restricting former President Nixon’s access to presidential papers and tape recordings constituted a prohibited bill of attainder that imposed retroactive punishment. In Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425, 97 S.Ct. 2777, 53 L.Ed.2d 867 (1977), the challenged statute required the General Services Administration to take custody of the presidential papers and tape recordings, and to promulgate regulations to assure public access, and authorized screening of the material by archivists to identify private papers that were returnable to President Nixon. Responding to the contention that the statute’s burdensome consequences were imposed only on one president and constituted retroactive punishment prohibited by the Bill of Attainder Clause, the Court first *133undertook an historical analysis and determined that the restrictions on access to presidential papers did not “fall[] within the historical meaning of legislative punishment.” Id. at 475, 97 S.Ct. at 2806, 53 L.Ed.2d at 911. Next, the Court applied a functional test to consider whether enforcement of the legislatively authorized restrictions achieved primarily regulatory or punitive ends. Id. at 475-78, 97 S.Ct. at 2806-08, 53 L.Ed.2d at 911-13. Finally, the Court considered whether the legislative history reflected a legislative purpose to impose punishment. Id. at 478-82, 97 S.Ct. at 2808-10, 53 L.Ed. 2d at 913-16. The Court concluded that the statute was not a punitive bill of attainder. Id. at 484, 97 S.Ct. at 2811, 53 L.Ed.2d at 917.
In four cases decided between 1979 and 1987, each one implicating whether a statute or practice constituted the imposition of punishment that mandated due-process protections under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, the Court rejected the due-process challenges. In each case, however, the Court resolved the punishment issue not by exclusive reliance on legislative intent, but by applying the two-part intent-effects test incorporated in the last two factors identified in the Court’s opinion in Mendoza-Martinez. See Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 538, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1873-74, 60 L.Ed.2d 447, 468 (1979) (“Absent a showing of an expressed intent to punish on the part of detention facility officials, that determination [of punishment] generally will turn on ‘whether an alternative purpose to which [the restriction] may rationally be connected is assignable for it, and whether it appears excessive in relation to the alternative purpose assigned [to it].’”) (quoting Mendoza-Martinez, supra, 372 U.S. at 168-69, 83 S.Ct. at 567-68, 9 L.Ed.2d at 661 (footnote omitted)); United States v. Ward, 448 U.S. 242, 248-49, 100 S.Ct. 2636, 2641, 65 L.Ed.2d 142, 749 (1980); Schall, supra, 467 U.S. at 269, 104 S.Ct. at 2412, 81 L.Ed.2d at 220; United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 747, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 2101, 95 L.Ed.2d 697, 708 (1987).
Significantly, in 1984, the Court expressly disclaimed exclusive reliance on legislative intent in determining punishment for dou*134ble-jeopardy purposes, importing in its place the Mendoza-Martinez intent-effects test. In United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms, 465 U.S. 354, 104 S.Ct. 1099, 79 L.Ed.2d 361 (1984), the Court held that double-jeopardy principles did not preclude a civil proceeding seeking forfeiture of firearms that was instituted after the owner was acquitted on criminal charges alleging dealing in firearms without a license. Observing that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not apply unless the forfeiture sanction constituted punishment the Court stated:
The question, then, is whether a § 924(d) forfeiture proceeding is intended to be, or by its nature necessarily is, criminal and punitive, or civil and remedial. Resolution of this question begins as a matter of statutory interpretation. * * *
Our inquiry in this regard has traditionally proceeded on two levels. First, we have set out to determine whether Congress, in establishing the penalizing mechanism, indicated either expressly or impliedly a preference for one label or the other. Second, where Congress has indicated an intention to establish a civil penalty, we have inquired further whether the statutory scheme was so punitive either in purpose or effect as to negate that intention.
[Id. at 362-63, 104 S.Ct. at 1105, 79 L.Ed.2d at 368 (quoting Ward, supra, 448 U.S. at 248-49, 100 S.Ct. at 2641, 65 L.Ed.2d at 749) (citations omitted) (emphasis added).]
The Court’s gradual abandonment of its previously exclusive reliance on legislative intent to determine punishment culminated with its decision in Halper, supra, in 1989. Halper had previously been convicted on multiple counts of submitting false claims for Medicare reimbursement and causing governmental overpayments of $585, the convictions resulting in a prison sentence and $5,000 fine. Subsequently, the government instituted a civil action under the False Claims Act to recover $130,000 ($2,000 for each of the sixty-five counts), and Halper challenged the proceeding as imposing multiple punishments in violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The government contended that the question whether the civil proceeding constituted “punishment” was solely a matter of statutory intent. The Court firmly rejected that approach:
As noted above, the Government takes the position that punishment in the relevant sense is meted out only in criminal proceedings, and that whether proceedings are criminal or civil is a matter of statutory construction. The Government correctly observes that this Court has followed this abstract approach when determining whether the procedural protections of the Sixth Amendment apply to proceedings *135under a given statute, in affixing the appropriate standard of proof for such proceedings, and in determining whether double jeopardy protections should be applied. But while recourse to statutory language, structure, and intent is appropriate in identifying the inherent nature of a proceeding, or in determining the constitutional safeguards that must accompany those proceedings as a general matter, the approach is not well suited to the context of the “humane interests” safeguarded by the Double Jeopardy Clause’s proscription of multiple punishments. See Hess, 317 US, at 554, 87 LEd 443, 63 SCt 379 (concurring opinion of Frankfurter, J.). This constitutional protection is intrinsically personal. Its violation can be identified only by assessing the character of the actual sanctions imposed on the individual by the machinery of the state.
[Id. at 446-47, 109 S.Ct. at 1901, 104 L.Ed.2d at 501.]
In rejecting exclusive reliance on legislative intent as “not well suited to the context of the ‘humane interests’ safeguarded by the Double Jeopardy Clause’s proscription of multiple punishments,” the Court indicated that for purposes of double jeopardy, and the analogous protections afforded by the Ex Post Facto and Bill of Attainder Clauses, the determination of punishment would largely depend on a functional test that focused on the purposes actually served by the sanction:
It is commonly understood that civil proceedings may advance punitive as well as remedial goals, and, conversely, that both punitive and remedial goals may be served by criminal penalties. The notion of punishment, as we commonly understand it, cuts across the division between the civil and the criminal law, and for the purposes of assessing whether a given sanction constitutes multiple punishment barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause, we must follow the notion where it leads. Cf. Hicks v. Feiock, 485 U.S. 624, 631, 108 S.Ct. 1423 [1429], 99 L.Ed.2d 721 (1988) (“[T]he labels affixed either to the proceeding or to the relief imposed ... are not controlling and will not be allowed to defeat the applicable protections of federal constitutional law”). To that end, the determination whether a given civil sanction constitutes punishment in the relevant sense requires a particularized assessment of the penalty [imposed and the purposes that the penalty] may fairly be said to serve. Simply put, a civil as well as a criminal sanction constitutes punishment when the sanction as applied in the individual ease serves the goals of punishment.
[Id. at 447-48, 109 S.Ct. at 1901-02, 104 L.Ed.2d at 501 (citation and footnote omitted).]
The Court’s opinion, ante at 50-63, 662 A.2d at 392-99, as well as portions of briefs submitted by amici, focus on another portion of the Halper opinion that states: “[I]t follows that a civil sanction that cannot fairly be said solely to serve a remedial purpose, but rather can only be explained as also serving either retributive or deterrent purposes, is punishment, as we have come to understand *136the term.” Id. at 448, 109 S.Ct. at 1902, 104 L.Ed.2d at 502. Amici argue that that excerpt compels the conclusion that the Notification Law constitutes punishment because it actually serves a retributive and deterrent purpose. The Court’s opinion responds that “[t]he language was never meant to apply to a provision that is wholly remedial in purpose but has, for example, some deterrent impact, but only to a sanction, or that part of a sanction, that may fairly be characterized ‘only as a deterrent or retribution.’ ” Ante at 52, 662 A.2d at 393. The Halper excerpt read in isolation is not crystal-clear, but in the context of the Court’s earlier language it should be understood as emphasizing that the actual function of a civil penalty must be evaluated carefully to determine if it imposes punishment. To the extent that the Court’s opinion reads Halper as somehow preserving the exclusive test of legislative intent to determine if a statute imposes punishment, the Court’s conclusion is inconsistent with those of the few commentators that have evaluated the Halper standard. See Andrew Z. Glickman, Note, Civil Sanctions and the Double Jeopardy Clause: Applying the Multiple Punishment Doctrine to Parallel Proceedings After United States v. Halper, 76 Va.L.Rev. 1251, 1264 (1990) (“Although the opinion claimed to uphold the Court’s earlier decisions, the Court’s holding effectively eliminated the role of statutory construction.”); Elizabeth S. Jahncke, Note, United States v. Halper, Punitive Civil Fines, and the Double Jeopardy and Excessive Fines Clauses, 66 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 112, 134 (1991) (“Thus, Halper differs from its predecessors in that it does not include any statutory analysis. The Halper Court instead enunciated a test that goes beyond statutory construction to consider whether a civil sanction as applied to a particular individual is punishment * * *.”). Contrary to the Court’s view, Halper can be understood only as abandoning legislative intent as the exclusive test for determining whether a statute imposes punishment.
In Austin, supra, decided four years after Halper, the Court was required to determine whether civil forfeiture proceedings, in which the United States sought forfeiture of Austin’s mobile home *137and auto body shop that had been used in drug transactions, constituted punishment and thereby violated the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment. The government contended that the statutes authorizing the requested forfeiture were remedial only, protecting the community by removing instruments of the drug trade, and compensating the government for the expense of law enforcement activity required by the drug transactions. Consistent with Halper, the Court relied primarily on historical and functional analysis to determine whether the statutes imposed punishment. The Court observed that three kinds of forfeiture were prevalent in England when the Eighth Amendment was ratified, but that only one — statutory forfeiture — was commonly used in colonial times, noting that statutory forfeiture was regarded as a punishment at common law. Id. at ---, 113 S.Ct. at 2806-08, 125 L.Ed.2d at 498-500. Functionally, the Court observed that the statutes at issue expressly provided for an “innocent owner” defense (prohibiting forfeiture if the property’s owner neither knew of nor consented to underlying acts), and that the statutes authorized forfeiture only if the property was used or intended to be used for the commission of drug offenses. The Court concluded that the functional effect of the forfeiture statutes was to impose punishment. Id. at -, 113 S.Ct. at 2810-11, 125 L.Ed.2d at 503-04. Finally, the Court concluded that the legislative history supported its conclusion that the statutes were punitive. Id. at -, 113 S.Ct. at 2811, 125 L.Ed.2d at 504.
Ill
The Supreme Court’s punishment jurisprudence confirms that the Court’s opinion misses the mark when it holds that “a statute that can fairly be characterized as remedial, both in its purpose and implementing provisions, does not constitute punishment even though its remedial provisions have some inevitable deterrent impact, and even though it may indirectly and adversely affect, potentially severely, some of those subject to its provisions.” Ante at 43, 662 A.2d at 388. The legislature’s ostensible purpose, which *138rarely can be definitively determined, is relevant but hardly decisive on the issue of punishment. A comprehensive and balanced inquiry into whether the Notification Law imposes punishment would include consideration of whether its impact, the widespread publicizing of information concerning sex offenders within their community, is consistent with practices historically employed as punishment in the past. In addition, a functional inquiry is essential to consider, even on this sparse record, the probable effects of the Notification Law on those sex offenders to whom it is applied.
A
In addressing the question whether punishment is being imposed, consideration whether the governmental action historically “was understood, at least in part, as imposing punishment” is most appropriate. Austin, supra, 509 U.S. at -, 113 S.Ct. at 2806, 125 L.Ed.2d at 498. The Supreme Court “has probably relied upon historical analysis more often than on any of the other objective factors * * * [to] determin[e] whether some government sanction is punitive.” Bell, supra, 441 U.S. at 590 n. 23, 99 S.Ct. at 1901 n. 23, 60 L.Ed.2d at 501 n. 23 (Stevens, J., dissenting).
In colonial times, “[t]he colonial frame of mind and the structure of colonial society influenced not only what was punished but also how crimes were punished.” Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History 36 (1993). Because “[t]he aim was not just to punish, but to teach a lesson, so that sinful sheep would want to get back to the flock,” public stigmatization, marking, disgrace, and humiliation of the offender served as a means by which collective society expressed its disapproval. Id. at 37.
“Early forms of punishment contained a strong element of gross public humiliation * * Jon A. Brilliant, Note, The Modem Day Scarlet Letter: A Critical Analysis of Modem Probation Conditions, 1989 Duke L.J. 1357, 1360. “The magistrates loved confessions of guilt, open expressions of remorse. They loved to enlist the community, the bystanders; their scorn, and the sin*139ners’ humiliation, were part of the process.” Friedman, supra, at 37. Public and dramatic forms of punishment identified the perpetrator as a “criminal” and served as the basis of subsequent social condemnation. Jack P. Gibbs, Crime, Punishment, and Deterrence 84 (1975). “[H]umiliatory punishments sought to elicit feelings of shame, though through manifest, collective disapproval rather than private instruction. * * * The sting of the lash and the contortions of the stocks were surely no balm, but even worse were the piercing stares of lifelong neighbors who witnessed the offender’s disgrace, and with whom he would continue to live and work.” Adam J. Hirsch, From Pillory to Penitentiary: The Rise of Criminal Incarceration in Early Massachusetts, 80 Mich. L.Rev. 1179, 1225-26 (1982).
“Shaming punishments were colorful [and] they were certainly used with great frequency.” Friedman, supra, at 38. Floggings at the whipping-post, hangings, and ritualistic mutilations “were carried out publicly in a ceremonial fashion,” Brilliant, supra, 1989 Duke L.J. at 1360, which served to “focus[] the community’s attention on the humiliation component of punishment.” Ibid. The branding of offenders was a common feature in colonial American jurisprudence, having been in wide use in England as well. The practice consisted of burning a letter roughly corresponding to the nature of the crime committed upon the face of the criminal. Murderers were branded with the letter M; thieves with a T; fighters and brawlers with an F; vagrants with a V. See Harry E. Barnes, The Story of Punishment: A Record of Man’s Inhumanity to Man 62 (1930); Brilliant, supra, 1989 Duke L.J. at 1361. “In the laws of colonial New Jersey it was stipulated, for example, that for burglary the first offense was to be punished by branding with a T on his hand, while the second offense was to be punished by branding an R on his forehead.” Barnes, supra, at 62. “The message was that this offender was not likely to mend his ways; disgrace would and should last until death.” Friedman, supra, at 40. “This cruel method of marking would preclude those who were branded from finding employment and thus ‘rendering] them desperate.’” Brilliant, supra, 1989 *140Duke L.J. at 1361 (quoting G. Ives, A History of Penal Methods 53 (1914)).
Indeed, humiliation and stigma were not simply component parts of early punishment, but at times were the only element of punishment. “Under the circumstances, the authorities often dispensed with the punishment’s physical component entirely: Many humiliated offenders were required simply to stand in public with signs cataloguing their offenses, a punishment that relied solely on mental anguish for its rehabilitative and deterrent effect.” Hirsch, supra, 80 Mich.L.Rev. at 1226. For example, an individual confined in the stocks or pillory might be a legitimate target for rotten vegetables and eggs. However, “[w]hen the pillory was employed in a simple fashion and not accompanied by any other mode of punishment, its operation was chiefly psychological, and it was designed to bring about the feeling of humiliation naturally attendant upon the infliction of public disgrace.” Barnes, supra, at 62-63. “Indeed, arguably the only punishment inflicted by the pillory was that caused by public display.” Brilliant, supra, 1989 Duke L.J. at 1361. Often, “shaming punishments” were offered as alternatives to fines or other forms of punishment. In Maine, in 1671, “Sarah Morgan, who had the effrontery to strike her husband, was ordered “ ‘to stand with a gagg in her Mouth halfe an houre at Kittery at a Publique Town meeting & the cause of her offence writt upon her forhead, or pay 50 s[hillings] to the County.’ ” Friedman, supra, at 38 (quoting 2 Province & Court Records of Maine (Charles T. Libby ed. 1931)).
“Esteem has always meant much in intimate communities * * Hirsch, supra, 80 Mich.L.Rev. at 1226. Humiliation and stigma were the essential, and at times sole, elements of colonial punishment.
B
In applying Halper’s functional standard to the Notification Law, requiring an assessment of the “character of the actual sanctions imposed on the individual by the machinery of the *141state,” Halper, supra, 490 U.S. at 447, 109 S.Ct. at 1901, 104 L.Ed.2d at 501, the Court’s task is to predict fairly the actual effect of the statutory requirements, as construed by the Court, after they are implemented.
The Court holds that for Tier Two notification, schools and other organizations that operate establishments that care for women or children qualify for notification if they are likely to encounter the offender. The Court’s opinion suggests that all schools and qualifying organizations within the municipality, depending on its size, shall be notified as well as schools and qualifying organizations in adjacent municipalities “depending upon their distance from the offender’s residence, place of work, or school.” Ante at 36, 662 A.2d at 385. The notice to schools and organizations must direct the recipient not to notify anyone else, but the Court does not specifically limit the personnel in the schools and organizations to whom the notice may be distributed. Presumably, all administrators, teachers, and other employees directly engaged in providing instruction and care for children, and comparable personnel in organizations providing care for women, will receive copies of the notice. In addition, day-care centers, nursery schools, day camps, little-league organizations, and similar community athletic programs for children all would appear to qualify for Tier Two notice. In a small municipality with a population of under 10,000 residents, hundreds of persons presumably will be entitled to receive the Tier Two notice and, although instructed to inform no one else about its contents, no enforcement mechanism conceivably can prevent word-of-mouth dissemination of the information contained in the notice required to be distributed.
Tier Three notification includes all entitled to Tier Two notice and members of the public likely to encounter the offender, which the Court construes to include “the immediate neighborhood of the offender’s residence and not just the people next door.” Ante at 36, 662 A.2d at 385. The Court expressly authorizes, if appropriate, notification of parents and school children in a neighborhood *142school if they are deemed likely to encounter the offender. Ante at 36-37, 662 A.2d at 385-86. In addition, because the Court instructs that geography as well as an offender’s likely whereabouts and proclivity for certain locations are significant factors in determining the scope of notice, ante at 36-37, 662 A.2d at 385-86, the law might require notice to members of the public who live or work in the vicinity of the offender’s place of employment, or in the vicinity of establishments (such as bars or bowling alleys) that the offender regularly frequents, without regard to municipal boundaries. Although the Court has limited Tier Three notification from that authorized by the Attorney General’s Guidelines, no creative imagination is necessary for one fairly to conclude that the public notice mandated by the law is expansive. If Tier Two notice typically would reach hundreds of persons employed in a municipality, Tier Three notification could involve double or triple that number, and the numbers of people notified would be even greater in communities of larger size and population.
To receive the notice mandated by law and not to disclose information contained in the notice to family members or neighbors would be contrary to human nature. The Court assumes that the media will act responsibly and not frustrate the legislative goal of targeted notification. Ante at 38-39, 662 A.2d at 386. Even if the media heeds the Court’s admonition, which cannot be assured, the virtual certainty is that the notification mandated by the law, especially Tier Three but probably Tier Two as well, will result as a practical matter in broad and pervasive notice, community-wide in many smaller municipalities, of the presence within the community of someone convicted of a sex offense.
The community’s reaction to such notice is impossible to predict, but given the normal range of human emotion one reasonably could anticipate that notice of the presence of a sex offender will trigger fear, suspicion, hostility, anger, evasive behavior, ostracism, and in some cases derision, epithets and violence. To be sure, the sex offender’s quality of life will be adversely affected. *143Depending on circumstances, the sex offender might lose employment, friends, standing in the community, and might very well be subjected to community hostility so pervasive as to induce the offender to relocate. A likely, although unintended, result of New Jersey’s notification statute might be to induce the sex offenders subject to the Community Notification Law to leave the State.
To anticipate that the Community Notification Law, even as limited by the Court’s interpretation, will not visit severe, disruptive, and perhaps intolerable consequences on offenders subject to Tier Two and Tier Three notification is simply unrealistic. The two examples of violence and intimidation revealed by the record, supra, at 25, 662 A.2d at 379-80, might not typify public reaction to notification. However, they fairly suggest the probability that the sex offender subject to Tier Two and Tier Three notification will be a well-known, easily identifiable, and likely target of widespread community rejection, antipathy, and scorn. Based on its functional effect, the conclusion is inescapable that the Community Notification Law imposes punishment within the meaning of the Ex Post Facto Clause.
rv
In determining that the requirements of procedural due process mandate judicial review of Tier Two and Three classifications and the manner in which public notice will be implemented, the Court cites Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 701, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1161, 47 L.Ed.2d 405, 414 (1976), for the proposition that “reputation alone, apart from some more tangible interests such as employment, is [not] either ‘liberty’ or ‘property’ by itself sufficient to invoke the procedural protection of the Due Process Clause,” noting that the protection is afforded only if harm to reputation is accompanied by the alteration of “ ‘a right or status previously recognized by state law.’ ” Ante at 101-02, 662 A.2d at 418 (quoting Paul, supra, 424 U.S. at 711, 96 S.Ct. at 1165, 47 L.Ed.2d at 420). The Court concludes that classification in Tier Two or Tier Three damages the reputation of sex offenders, but that impairment of an addi*144tional interest previously recognized under state law is a prerequisite to entitlement to procedural due-process protections. Ante at 101-04, 662 A.2d at 418-19. The Court further concludes “that classification in Tiers Two or Three, with the requisite public notification, would expose plaintiff to public opprobrium, not only identifying him as a sex offender but also labelling him as potentially currently dangerous, and thereby undermining his reputation and standing in the community.” Ante at 103, 662 A.2d at 419. Thus, the Court determines that the Community Notification Law not only damages the reputation of sex offenders, but also impairs a previously protected state interest by labeling sex offenders as currently dangerous and intruding on their right of privacy by exposing them to public opprobrium, triggering procedural due-process protections. Ibid.
Because “[t]he deprivation of any rights, civil or political, previously enjoyed, may be punishment,” Cummings, supra, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) at 320, 18 L.Ed. at 362, the Court’s conclusion that the deprivation of rights imposed by the Community Notification Law requires procedural due-process protection also constitutes a recognition that the very same deprivation of rights imposes punishment for ex post facto purposes. Nevertheless, the Court concludes that the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution “does not prevent society from attempting to protect itself from convicted sex offenders, no matter when convicted, so long as the means of protection are reasonably designed for that purpose and only for that purpose, and not designed to punish.” Ante at 12, 662 A.2d at 372.
The question whether the Registration and Community Notification Laws are “reasonably designed” to protect society from convicted sex offenders is exclusively a legislative determination, but the availability of alternative means of protection may be pertinent to the overriding constitutional issue. The statutes use mandatory public notice as the prescribed means of public protection, although without a notification statute police departments undoubtedly possess and exercise the discretion to notify residents *145of the presence of potentially dangerous prior offenders residing in a community. Moreover, continued treatment of convicted sex offenders through State-supported voluntary counseling and rehabilitation programs arguably might be more effective than notification over the long term. In addition, the Legislature undoubtedly recognizes that the limited protection afforded by the Community Notification Law does not address the concern that a sex offender could commit an offense a substantial distance from that offender’s community. Finally, the tier classification procedure lacks criteria and reliability, the statute distinguishing only among low, moderate, and high risk of re-offense without specific standards, and the classification decision being left to the informed discretion of the county prosecutor. The likelihood is strong that prosecutors, in making tier-classification decisions, will err on the side of caution and in favor of broader notification, and that courts reviewing those determinations will disturb them infrequently. Thus, the process by which prior sex offenders are classified and subjected to broad community notification, although a subject remitted initially to legislative discretion, is hardly flawless.
The Court appears to conclude, however, despite any deficiencies in the classification and notification process adopted by the Legislature, that its rationality establishes its constitutionality. That is, because the Court concludes that the Legislature reasonably could determine that these statutes prevent harm to the public by mandating notice to the community of the whereabouts of prior sex offenders, the Constitution does not prohibit their enactment.
I disagree. The Legislature’s value judgment about these laws is entitled to great respect, but that judgment comprises only one part of the constitutional equation. The judiciary’s task is to complete the equation by evaluating the legislative determination in the context of settled Constitutional principles. Those principles are neither negotiable nor flexible, their importance having been conclusively determined more than two hundred years ago by the founding fathers. In applying those principles, we must *146bear in mind their origins: “The constitutional prohibitions against the enactment of ex post facto laws and bills of attainder reflect a valid concern about the use of the political process to punish or characterize past conduct of private citizens.” City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 513, 109 S.Ct. 706, 732, 102 L.Ed.2d 854, 895 (1989) (Stevens, J., concurring). In addition, we are reminded that
retroactive statutes raise particular concerns. The Legislature’s unmatched powers allow it to sweep away settled expectations suddenly and without individualized consideration. Its responsivity to political pressures poses a risk that it may be tempted to use retroactive legislation as a means of retribution against unpopular groups or individuals. As Justice Marshall observed in his opinion for the Court in Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 101 S.Ct. 960, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981), the Ex Post Facto Clause not only ensures that individuals have “fair warning” about the effect of criminal statutes, but also “restricts governmental power by restraining arbitrary and potentially vindictive legislation.” Id., at 28-29, 101 S.Ct. 960 [963-64], 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (citations omitted).
[Landgraf v. USI Film Products, 511 U.S. -, ---, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 1497-98, 128 L.Ed.2d 229, 253 (1994).]
The Constitution’s prohibition against ex post facto laws reflects an enduring value that transcends the most pressing concerns of this or any day and age. Today, our concern is with prior sex offenders; in the 1950’s the legislative concern focused on Communists; and in the 1860’s Congress was determined to punish legislatively those who had supported the Confederacy. Future legislatures will doubtlessly find reasons to deal harshly with other groups that pose an apparent threat to the public safety.
Tested against the historical uses and purposes of punishment, public notice and public ostracism concerning prior sex offenders appear to fall squarely within the parameters of punishment as practiced at the time of adoption of the Constitution. The identification, scorn, and humiliation of sex offenders that public notice will achieve is strikingly reminiscent of the punishments commonly imposed in the colonial period. Supra at 38-40, 662 A.2d at 386-87. Moreover, the functional effect of the Community Notification Law compels the conclusion that it imposes punishment on prior sex offenders. Unlike the laws of other states that operate only prospectively, prohibit public notice, or permit such notice only as *147a matter of police discretion where necessary for public safety, supra, at 20-25, 662 A.2d at 377-79, New Jersey’s statute mandates the broadest public notice of any state statute yet enacted, notice so pervasive that community-wide knowledge of every sex offender’s whereabouts can be anticipated. The adverse effect on the quality of life of sex offenders subject to notification necessarily will be substantial, undoubtedly compelling many of them to leave the State. The functional effect of the Community Notification Law is to increase the punishment of sex offenders retroactively.
Despite the Legislature’s understandable concern about the danger presented by prior sex offenders, the judicial role, mindful of the compelling pressures that led to the statute’s enactment, is to test the statute on the basis of the Constitution’s fundamental protection against punitive retroactive legislation. I would hold that the devastating impact on prior sex offenders that will occur from implementation of the Community Notification Law constitutes retroactively imposed punishment prohibited by the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution.
For modification and affirmance — Chief Justice WILENTZ, and Justices HANDLER, POLLOCK, O’HERN, GARIBALDI and COLEMAN — 6.
For reversal — Justice STEIN — 1.

 The New York legislature has passed a sex-offender registration bill, but has not yet sent that bill to the Governor.

 In the context of a preliminary injunction, a federal-district court in Alaska concluded that the plaintiffs challenging the registration law were “likely to succeed on the merits of the claim that the Registration Act violates the prohibition on ex post facto legislation, because the law includes a provision providing for public dissemination of information concerning sex offenders whose convictions antedate the Registration Act.” Rowe v. Burton, 884 F.Supp. 1372, 1380 (D.Alaska 1994).

 The Louisiana Court of Appeal in State v. Babin, 637 So.2d 814, 824-25, writ denied, 644 So.2d 649 (La.1994), held that because the registration statute’s provisions had not been in effect at the time of the commission of the defendant’s crime, their application to the defendant violated the prohibition against ex post facto laws in both the United States and the Louisiana Constitutions.