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Angel Luis Thomas, Sr. v. Tyree C. Blocker, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 19-1774 · judgment January 29, 2020

Certiorari denied · June 29, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 6% cert probability (95% interval 3%–9%)

Before the decision, modestly above the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Third Circuit decision below, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and counsel who has filed here before.

Questions presented

The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) requires the states and other territories to establish their own registries or risk loss of federal funding. In certain circumstances, SORNA imposes criminal penalties on individuals who fail to register in the jurisdiction where they reside. There is no federal registry of sex offenders.

  1. Does the Commerce Clause empower Congress to impose “Registry requirements for sex offenders,” 34 U.S.C. § 20913, directly upon an individual convicted under state law who does not cross state lines and who is exempt from his state’s own, punitive registration requirements?

  2. Did the Third Circuit overstep constitutional limits when it held that federal law authorizes state actors to enroll an individual into a state sex-offender registry, against his will, even though the state itself exempts him from registration?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Marianne Sawicki
Law Office of Marianne Sawicki LLC

For respondent
Sean Andrew Kirkpatrick
Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jun 29 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jun 09 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/25/2020.
  3. Jun 08 2020
    Waiver of right of respondents Tyree Blocker, et al. to respond filed.
  4. Apr 28 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 8, 2020)