Washington DC:
US Supreme Court Decision (08-1301):
Carr -v- United States (6-10-2010)
Oral Argument:
Transcript 2-24-2010
SCOTUS wiki (Has all briefs):
Carr v. United States
Issue: Whether a person may be criminally prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 2250 for failure to register when the defendant’s underlying offense and travel in interstate commerce both predated the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act’s enactment; whether the Ex Post Facto Clause precludes prosecution under § 2250(a) of a person whose underlying offense and travel in interstate commerce both predated SORNA’s enactment.
(From Decision: .... At the very least, the close correspondence between theCommittee’s discussion of missing sex offenders and itsrecognition of the travel element’s prospective application would seem to confirm that reading §2250 to reach only postenactment travel does not contravene SORNA’s un-derlying purposes, let alone result in an absurdity that would compel us to disregard the statutory text. Cf. Ar-lington Central School Dist. Bd. of Ed. v. Murphy, 548 U. S. 291, 296 (2006) (“We have stated time and again that courts must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. When the statutory language is plain, the sole function of the courts —at least where the disposition required by thetext is not absurd— is to enforce it according to its terms”(internal quotation marks and citation omitted)).
* * * * *
Having concluded that §2250 does not extend to pre enactment travel, we need not consider whether such a construction would present difficulties under the Constitution’s Ex Post Facto Clause. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. It is so ordered.)
News:
Sex Offender Law Can't Be Applied Retroactively
Supreme Court places temporal limits on SORNA
High Court Considers Retroactive Effect of Sex Offender Law
LII Bulletin (Discussing case):
