Law Commons^™

"Mosaic Theory" And Megan's Laws, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This essay urges reexamination of the privacy implications of registration and community notification (RCN) laws, commonly known as Megan’s Laws. Applying the analytic construct recently employed by the D.C. Circuit in United States v. Maynard to conclude that extended use of a GPS tracking device constitutes a search for Fourth Amendment purposes, the essay argues that the collection and aggregation of registrant data entailed in RCN implicates a protectable Fourteenth Amendment privacy interest. In both contexts, the government collects nominally public data – in Maynard, car travel, with RCN, registrants’ home/work/school addresses, physical traits, etc. – and creates an informational …

Megan's Laws As A Case Study In Political Stasis, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Criminal Justice Federalism And National Sex Offender Policy, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This paper, part of a symposium, examines the federal government's sustained effort to recast state policies regarding sex offender registration and community notification laws. While commentators have typically focused on federal Commerce Clause-based incursions on state criminal justice authority, with registration and notification the U.S. has invoked the Spending Clause, a less controversial yet more invasive strategy, driving outcomes nationwide, not merely within the federal system alone. As a result, borrowing from Justice Harlan, the U.S. has "fasten[ed] on the States federal notions of criminal justice" in a major way.

After providing an overview of the historic reluctance of the …

Sex Offender Registration And Community Notification Policy: Past, Present, And Future, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Based on a keynote address delivered in conjunction with the Journal's annual symposium, this paper examines several of the major legal and policy issues associated with sex offender registration and community notification laws. Particular attention is dedicated to the Adam Walsh Act, a federal law enacted in July 2006 that continues efforts by Congress to foster changes in state registration and notification regimes as a result of its Spending Clause authority. In addition to discussing the federalism implications of the AWA, the paper examines several of its most significant provisions, including those calling for empirical assessment of registration and community …

Constitutional Collectivism And Ex-Offender Residence Exclusion Laws, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

The U.S. has often been imperiled by the competing interests of individual states, and while past threats have most frequently assumed economic or political form, this article addresses a different threat: state efforts to limit where ex-offenders (those convicted of sex crimes in particular) can live. The laws have thus far withstood constitutional challenge, with courts deferring to the police power of states. This deference, however, ignores the negative externalities created when states jettison their human dross, and defies Justice Cardozo's oft-repeated constitutional tenet that the “the peoples of the several states must sink or swim together.” The article discusses …

Horizontal Federalism In An Age Of Criminal Justice Interconnectedness, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Despite their status as independent sovereigns, states increasingly exhibit a willingness to interact when it comes to crime control matters. This Article examines the two foremost examples of this phenomenon: criminal recidivist enhancement laws and sex offender registration laws. Both types of laws have been around for decades and have evolved to accommodate ex-offenders, who, consistent with constitutional freedom of movement, can (and often do) change state residences. This effort at accommodation, however, puts states in the unusual position of having to interpret and apply the criminal laws and outcomes of their fellow sovereigns. As the Article makes clear, recidivist …

A Study In "Actuarial Justice": Sex Offender Classification Practice And Procedure, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.