Robert M. Atwell v. Tennessee

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT: The Petitioner is a registered sex offender in the State of Missouri, with two qualifying convictions. The first was in 1996 and the second in 2001. While visiting in Johnson City, Tennessee, in August of 2018, Petitioner accompanied his girlfriend to register her son for the first day of elementary school. Petitioner was arrested and subsequently convicted of felony violation of the Tennessee Sex Offender and Violent Sexual Offender Registration, Verification, and Tracking Act of 2004 (the “TSORA”), T.C.A §40-39- 201, et seq., which prohibits sex offenders from “be[ing]… on the premises of any…public school….” T.C.A. §40-39-211(d)(1)(A). 1. Was the Petitioner’s arrest and conviction under the TSORA a violation of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the U.S. CONST., art. 1, sec. 10, cl. 1?