The Sex Offender Law That Could’ve Broken the Government

Herman Gundy was a convicted sex offender who failed to register as one in Pennsylvania and New York, states in which he traveled and resided. Under the Sex Offender Notification and Registration Act of 2006, he had to register, so he was sent to prison again for failing to do so. Gundy v. United States was a 2019 Supreme Court case that dealt with the “nondelegation doctrine,” the practice that prohibits Congress, well, from delegating its legislative abilities to executive administrative agencies such as the Department of Justice or private organizations, etc. Justice Elena Kagan writes in her opinion for the case, “Indeed, if SORNA’s delegation is unconstitutional, then most of Government is unconstitutional.” Full Opinion Piece

Related posts

Subscribe
Notify of

We welcome a lively discussion with all view points - keeping in mind...

 

  1. Submissions must be in English
  2. Your submission will be reviewed by one of our volunteer moderators. Moderating decisions may be subjective.
  3. Please keep the tone of your comment civil and courteous. This is a public forum.
  4. Swear words should be starred out such as f*k and s*t and a**
  5. Please avoid the use of derogatory labels.  Always use person-first language.
  6. Please stay on topic - both in terms of the organization in general and this post in particular.
  7. Please refrain from general political statements in (dis)favor of one of the major parties or their representatives.
  8. Please take personal conversations off this forum.
  9. We will not publish any comments advocating for violent or any illegal action.
  10. We cannot connect participants privately - feel free to leave your contact info here. You may want to create a new / free, readily available email address that are not personally identifiable.
  11. Please refrain from copying and pasting repetitive and lengthy amounts of text.
  12. Please do not post in all Caps.
  13. If you wish to link to a serious and relevant media article, legitimate advocacy group or other pertinent web site / document, please provide the full link. No abbreviated / obfuscated links. Posts that include a URL may take considerably longer to be approved.
  14. We suggest to compose lengthy comments in a desktop text editor and copy and paste them into the comment form
  15. We will not publish any posts containing any names not mentioned in the original article.
  16. Please choose a short user name that does not contain links to other web sites or identify real people.  Do not use your real name.
  17. Please do not solicit funds
  18. No discussions about weapons
  19. If you use any abbreviation such as Failure To Register (FTR), Person Forced to Register (PFR) or any others, the first time you use it in a thread, please expand it for new people to better understand.
  20. All commenters are required to provide a real email address where we can contact them.  It will not be displayed on the site.
  21. Please send any input regarding moderation or other website issues via email to moderator [at] all4consolaws [dot] org
  22. We no longer post articles about arrests or accusations, only selected convictions. If your comment contains a link to an arrest or accusation article we will not approve your comment.
  23. If addressing another commenter, please address them by exactly their full display name, do not modify their name. 
ACSOL, including but not limited to its board members and agents, does not provide legal advice on this website.  In addition, ACSOL warns that those who provide comments on this website may or may not be legal professionals on whose advice one can reasonably rely.  
 

12 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

The Government SUCK! These mofoers know that retroactive punishment is “NOT” The American Way !

Does Gundy, under the new Tiered Registry Law, give the California Department of Justice ultimate authority to place people into tiers?

If so, this is incredibly troubling. Also troubling is that politically speaking, even though I tend to lean left, why did the “liberal” wing of the Supreme Court not rule in favor of Gundy?

It seems counterintuitive that the “conservative” justices ruled in favor of Gundy.

Practically speaking, and from a long-term perspective, it’s incredibly troubling that the liberal wing of Supreme Court would lead us to believe that putting a society’s well-being in the hands of bureaucrats, “scientists,” and “empirical science” trumps the Constitution, as well as the legislative bodies and committees that examine strictures that may have control over the individual — not just the “sex offender” — life.

I just have a bad feeling that Gundy has the power to make the Tiered Registry Law a living hell, especially with what seems like implied power that it gives the California Department of Justice and its corrupt, career-driven, Assistant Attorney Generals and bureaucrats.

Non delegation theory is a scotus affirmation based in separate of powers clauses in our constitution. Gundy complained about congress passing their duty onto the administrative.

A better non delegation complaint case perhaps would highlight the impermissible Congress’ legislative choice to grant the Administrative the general duty of the judicial- the doling out of DOC COMMITMENTS or other civil obligations on the basis of crimes.

The reason non delegation has diminished is it slows gov response to the instant threat. We see that concept in action, for example, in the response strike by US military forces in Syria yesterday.
That strike was an act of war. Declaration of War however is a congressional authority under our constitution. Congress has indeed exponentially expanded Admin agility to take war like action, with the caveat of notice to house and Senate leadership.

Still, it is one thing to delegate ones own authority to another branch but to delegate an authority not within your own to manage is another.

Very well written article. Agree ex post facto in any form is wrong and unconstitutional despite Reynolds. If SCOTUS can carve out loopholes, exceptions, or prong tests at any time they desire, then we as a country are really in a world of hurt and have been since they started doing it, e.g. Calder v Bull IMO.

This article has the comment posting by Rudy101 I erroneously mentioned in another posting I provided this AM.

I thought conservative judges interpret the Constitution as originalists; while liberal judges interpret the Constitution as being a living and breathing document.

The government has gotten to big and bureaucratic officials write the bills; while giving congress only hours to read before voting.

Moratorium on rent?

A Fed judge outright declared unconstitutional the rent moratorium put forth by CDC agency. Obviously the Texas’ Congress had made no statute laying the groundwork for such gov action by the agency via the delegation scenario as is in Herman Gundy case. The center for disease control utilizing the covid situation to once again expand federalist power into the day to day of individuals. Sound familiar?