Gundy v. United States

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in Gundy v. United States, a case concerning the 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) and the attorney general’s authority to apply the law retroactively. In 2005, Herman Avery Gundy pleaded guilty to raping an 11-year old girl and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Ten of those years were suspended, and five were to be probation years. In 2013, the federal government indicted him under SORNA for failure to register as a sex offender in New York, and he was again convicted. His attorney sought to get the case dismissed on the grounds that SORNA could not apply to him. Under SORNA, the attorney general is given the authority to decide whether sex offender registration requirements should apply to those convicted prior to 2006; the attorney general’s position was to apply it to all pre-SORNA offenders. The Second Circuit ruled in favor of the government and Mr. Gundy appealed to the Supreme Court. close