Billy Joe Reynolds, Petitioner v. United States (565 U.S. 432)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 23, 2012 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 565 U.S. 432 · 132 S. Ct. 975
- Decided
- January 23, 2012
- Term
- October Term 2011
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (Act), 120 Stat. 590, 42 U. S. C. § 16901 et seq. (2006 ed. and Supp. Ill), requires those convicted of certain sex crimes to provide state governments with (and to update) information, such as names and current addresses, for inclusion on state and federal sex offender registries. §§ 16912(a), 16913-16914, 16919(a) (2006 ed.). The Act makes it a crime for a person who is “required to register” under the Act and who “travels in interstate or foreign commerce” knowingly to “fai[l] to register or update a registration . . . .” 18 U. S. C. § 2250(a). The question before us concerns the date on which this federal registration requirement took effect with respect to sex offenders convicted before the Act became law. The Act defines the term “sex offender” as including these pre-Act offenders. 42 U. S. C. § 16911(1); see Carr v. United States, 560 U. S. 438,447 (2010). It says that “[a] sex offender shall register.” § 16913(a). And it further says that “[t]he Attorney General shall have the authority to specify the applicability of the [registration] requirements ... to sex offenders convicted before the enactment of this chapter ....” § 16913(d) (emphasis added). In our view, these provisions, read together, mean that the Act’s registration requirements do not apply to…
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