Number: RS21334
Title: Sexual Offender Registration Acts: Supreme Court Review of the Connecticut and Alaska Statutes in Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe and Otte v. Doe
Authors: Charles Doyle, American Law Division 
Abstract: The United States Supreme Court has rejected constitutional challenges to two state sex offender registration and notification statutes (SORA), Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe, 123 S.Ct. 1140 (2003); Smith v. Doe, 123 S.Ct. 1160 (2002). In one, it concluded that as a matter of due process registrants under the Connecticut statute need not be afforded the opportunity of a hearing to establish that they should be released from the burdens of the statute because they are not currently dangerous. In the other, it held that the ex post facto clause does not ban application of the Alaska statute to convictions for misconduct occurring prior to enactment of the statute. The Justices left open the possibility that such statutes might be subject to constitutional attack on substantive due process grounds and possibly on equal protection grounds.
Pages: 5
Date: March 24, 2003