Residency Restrictions and the USSC
It is clear based on lots of lower court litigation that the constitutionality of sex offender residency restrictions will come before the US Supreme Court sooner or later. It is thus interesting to speculate exactly when and how these issues will get to the High Court.
New posts at other blogs reporting on recent constitutional rulings from state courts in Indiana and Ohio highlight the possibility that these issues will get to the Justices through the state court system. However, some recent notable federal district rulings about various sex offender issues suggest federal sex offender cases could get to the Court first, especially if we start seeing some major circuit action on these matters.
Notably, the constitutional issues presented in different cases often vary: frequently ex post facto punishment claims are pressed by former offenders subject to new residency restrictions, but various due process and takings claims have also found some traction in some settings. And, though not always central to the legal issues, the background and specific crimes of a sex offender complaining about residency restrictions can always have an impact on judicial and public reactions to various types of constitutional claims.
Does anyone know of any especially potent residency restrictions cases in the pipeline that might be presented to the Supreem Court in the near future?
The Supreme Court had some chances to hear cases out of the 8th Circuit when Doe v. Miller and Weems v. Little Rock Police Department were decided. The Court passed. Since then, there has been little activity at the federal level in regards to residency restrictions. Most of the litigation has been in state courts. This presents a couple major obstacles to the USSC hearing a residency restriction case in the near future. First, without more federal litigation a circuit split is unlikely to develop. And without a circuit split, the Court is less inclined to hear a federal appeal. Second, the Court doesn't take as many cases out of individual states especially when those state court rulings can be independently based upon state constitutional claims. I think it is more likely that the USSC will hear an AWA registration case before it hears a residency restriction case.
Comments