LawyersUSA

Federal sex offender registration requirements under the Adam Walsh Act violate the Commerce Clause, a U.S. District Court in Florida has ruled in dismissing an indictment.

The defendant was a 43-year-old with an I.Q. of 68 and a second-grade reading level. He was convicted of a sex crime in South Carolina and registered as such with the state.

But he moved to Florida without registering there, and then left that state as well.

He was arrested for failing to register under the Act, which provides that a sex offender convicted under a state statute that fails to register in the national registry and engages in interstate travel can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to 10 years.

The defendant argued that the Act violated the Commerce Clause because it did not regulate activities that substantially affect interstate commerce.

The court agreed.

"Here, we are clearly not dealing with the regulation of channels or instrumentalities of commerce. Nor are we dealing with the regulation of persons or things in interstate commerce. … Simply put, there is no nexus between the crime (failure to register) and the interstate travel," the court said.

Further, "[c]riminal enforcement of sex offender registration requirements is a matter which each state may address as it deems appropriate; indeed all fifty states have done so. It has not been shown that the states need the federal government's help in this regard. … [A] worthy cause is not enough to transform a state concern (sex offender registration) into a federal crime. If an individual's mere unrelated travel in interstate commerce is sufficient to establish a Commerce Clause nexus with purely local conduct, then virtually all criminal activity would be subject to the power of the federal government. Surely our founding fathers did not contemplate such a broad view of federalism."

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. U.S. v. Powers, No. 6:07-cr-221-Orl-31 KRS. April 18, 2008. Lawyers USA No. 9939736. Click here for the full text of this opinion.