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New article asserting Commerce Clause problems with federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act

By Douglas A. Berman

Professor Corey Rayburn Yung has this important new article posted on SSRN, titled "The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and the Commerce Clause." Here is its abstract: In 2006, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ("SORNA") created a new federal crime of "failure to register" which is punishable by up to ten years imprisonment.  Since that time, sex offenders across the country have been prosecuted even though the offenders had no prior connection to the federal criminal justice system.  For almost all of the prosecutions under SORNA, the argued jurisdictional basis for federal prosecution has been that the sex offender travelled across state lines.  Based upon this travel, which is an element of the crime of failure to register, the government has argued that the new registration crime is justified under Commerce Clause authority...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on November 25, 2008 (boomark / email).