The association said in a statement, “Butler overturns the Superior Court’s finding that our state’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) lifetime registration, notification, and counseling requirements (RNC requirements) were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court found that these requirements are not punitive in nature but instead are a collateral consequence of one’s actions and mental fitness and advance public safety.”

The statement continued saying, “The Court seriously erred by finding that public notification of SVPs is constitutional, and this decision will affect over 2,000 PA registrants as well as their families and friends. Being listed on a public registry as an SVP is an unjust and dehumanizing experience. Justice Wecht said at the hearings of Commonwealth v. Thomas Reed, Commonwealth v. Claude Lacombe, and Commonwealth v. Michael Witmayer that being listed on a public sex offender registry is “the mark of Cain.” The ruling in Butler has left intact the mark of Cain for those labeled SVP.”

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The case challenges the federal SORNA law that requires individuals who had been released from their registering duties in one state to resume registering upon relocating to another state. Currently, in cases where an individual has completed his/her registering period or where the courts have ruled that state’s registry law to be unconstitutional, the individual can be placed back on the sex offender registry in a different state after moving or visiting and could face severe retributions if they fail to report the change.

On October 1st, 2019, United States District Judge Gershwin A. Drain granted the U.S. Attorney General’s motion to dismiss the case, citing the plaintiff’s failure to identify the specific statutory language he is challenging and several arguments that were undercut in previous court rulings. An appeal was promptly filed to the 6th Circuit Court in November 2019.

This story is a reprint from the NARSOL website