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.

The Adam Walsh Act And The Failed Promise Of Administrative Federalism, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

For advocates of federalism, these are uncertain times. With hope of meaningful judicial federalism having largely receded, and Congress persisting in its penchant for intrusions on state authority, of late several scholars have championed the capacity of executive agencies to enforce and preserve federalism interests. This paper tests this position, providing the first empirically based critical analysis of administrative federalism, focusing on the recently enacted Adam Walsh Act, intended by Congress to redesign states’ sex offender registration and community notification laws. The paper casts significant doubt on the accepted empirical assumptions of administrative federalism, adding to the limited evidence amassed …

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 …

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

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Liberty Interests In The Preventive State: Procedural Due Process And Sex Offender Community Notification Laws, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.