Gundy v. United States
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 20, 2019 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 20, 2019
- Term
- October Term 2018
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Miscellaneous
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Unspecifiable
Opinion excerpt
Syllabus GUNDY v. UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the second circuit No. 17–6086. Argued October 2, 2018—Decided June 20, 2019 Congress has sought, for the past quarter century, to combat sex crimes and crimes against children through sex-offender registration schemes. The Sex Offender Registration and Notifcation Act (SORNA) makes more “uniform and effective” the prior “patchwork” of registration sys- tems. Reynolds v. United States, 565 U. S. 432, 435. To that end, it requires a broader range of sex offenders to register and backs up those requirements with criminal penalties. Section 20913 elaborates the “[i]nitial registration” requirements for sex offenders. 34 U. S. C. §§ 20913(b), (d). Subsection (b) sets out the general rule: An offender must register “before completing a sentence of imprisonment with respect to the offense giving rise to the registration requirement.” § 20913(b). Subsection (d) addresses the “[i]nitial registration of sex offenders unable to comply with subsection (b).” The provision states that, for individuals convicted of a sex offense before SORNA's enact- ment (“pre-Act offenders”), the Attorney General “shall have the au- thority” to “specify the applicability” of SORNA's registration require- ments and “to prescribe rules for [their] registration.” §20913(d). Under that delegated authority, the Attorney…
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