Justice Ginsburg dissented, joined by Justice Sotomayor.The Court’s decision is available here.Gundy v. United States, No. 17-6086: Congress enacted the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) to create a national system for sex offender registration, including registration requirements and criminal penalties for anyone who knowingly fails to register in accord with SORNA’s requirements. Although the Act contains detailed “initial registration” requirements for those convicted after SORNA’s enactment, for pre-Act offenders – those convicted of a sex offense before SORNA’s enactment – the law provided that “[t]he Attorney General shall have the authority to specify the applicability of the requirements of this subchapter to sex offenders convicted before the enactment of this chapter . . . and to prescribe rules for the registration of any such sex offenders . . . .” 34 U.S.C. §20913(d). The Attorney General correspondingly issued a rule reiterating that SORNA applies to all pre-Act offenders.

The defendant, Thomas Abdul Holcombe, became subject to SORNA’s registration requirements following his 1992 conviction under state law for a sex offense. SORNA requires, inter alia, that a sex offender update his or her registration following a change in residence, 34 U.S.C. §20913, and imposes federal criminal liability upon any such person who “travels in interstate … commerce … [and] knowingly fails to register or update a registration” 18 U.S.C. §2250(a). In April 2013, after being released from a New York jail for another offense, Holcombe updated his SORNA registration to an address in New York, but never in fact lived there.