## Facts

- Anthony James Kebodeaux, an Air Force servicemember, was convicted by special court-martial in 1999 of statutory rape and received a short sentence and a bad-conduct discharge.
- At the time of his conviction, federal law (the Wetterling Act) and Defense Department regulations imposed sex-offender registration requirements on certain military offenders as a consequence of conviction.
- After discharge, Kebodeaux moved to Texas and registered under Texas law.
- In 2006, Congress enacted the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), creating nationwide registration standards and making failure to register a federal crime.
- In 2008, after moving within Texas, Kebodeaux failed to timely update his registration and was federally prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a)(2)(A).
- He was convicted in federal district court and sentenced to imprisonment followed by supervised release.

## Issues

1. Whether Congress, under the Necessary and Proper Clause, may apply SORNA’s registration requirements and federal failure-to-register penalties to a person convicted of a federal sex offense and released before SORNA’s enactment.
2. Whether applying SORNA to such an individual exceeds Congress’s Article I powers by regulating intrastate conduct after completion of a federal sentence.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit in a 7–2 decision and upheld SORNA as applied to Kebodeaux.
- The Court held that Kebodeaux was not free of federal registration obligations before SORNA because preexisting federal law already subjected him to federal registration requirements tied to his court-martial conviction.
- SORNA was treated as a modification and standardization of existing federal registration consequences rather than a wholly new assertion of power over an unrelated private citizen.
- The Court concluded that making federal registration requirements more uniform and enforceable was a rational means of carrying into execution Congress’s authority connected to the underlying federal conviction (including Congress’s power to regulate the armed forces).
- Concurring in the judgment, the Chief Justice and Justice Alito stressed the limited holding: Congress may impose reasonable post-conviction registration duties on federal offenders, but the decision does not recognize a general federal police power.
- Dissenting, Justices Scalia and Thomas argued that once Kebodeaux completed his sentence and was discharged, continued federal regulation of his intrastate conduct exceeded any enumerated power and improperly expanded the Necessary and Proper Clause.

## Legal Principles

- Under the Necessary and Proper Clause, Congress may adopt rational measures reasonably adapted to implementing its enumerated powers, including measures tied to the consequences of valid federal convictions.
- Congress may impose and adjust civil regulatory obligations that function as post-conviction consequences for individuals convicted of federal crimes, including court-martial convictions.
- A federal statute that standardizes and enforces preexisting federal obligations for federal offenders may be sustained even when compliance occurs through state registration systems.
- Federal failure-to-register penalties may be applied to a federal offender released before the statute’s enactment where the statute is treated as an adjustment of ongoing federal registration obligations linked to the conviction.
- The decision was framed as limited to federal offenders and did not confer a general power to regulate all sex offenders independent of a connection to an enumerated power.

## Conclusion

The Court held that SORNA’s registration requirements and related federal penalties were constitutionally applied to a former Air Force offender because they were a permissible, post-conviction regulatory consequence connected to Congress’s authority over federal crimes and the military and supported by the Necessary and Proper Clause.


United States v. Kebodeaux, 570 U.S. 387 (2013)