Appeals court upholds Tennessee sex offender registry, reversing lower court ruling

A federal appeals court upheld Tennessee's sex offender registry law Wednesday, 14 months after a lower court ruled it was an unconstitutional punishment for some offenders. While it identified some parts of the law "potentially unconstitutional," the state will be allowed to enforce most of them under the ruling.

The ruling concerned how Tennessee enforces its sex offender registry on those who committed sexual crimes before the current registry was created in 2004.

Court overturns ruling that registry unconstitutional for pre-2004 convictions

The court reversed a March 2023 federal district court ruling that the registry's requirements were so harsh that people convicted before 2004 and later placed on the registry were subject to punishments that didn't exist when they were sentenced, which violates constitutional protections against retroactive punishment.

As part of that lower court ruling, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger blocked Tennessee from continuing to enforce its sex offender registry law on the eight plaintiffs in the case, which effectively opened a pathway for anyone with a pre-2004 sex offense and money for a lawyer to get off the registry, at least temporarily.

The three-judge appeals court panel of Eugene Edward Siler Jr., John Nalbandian and Stephanie Dawkins Davis — Bush, Trump and Biden appointees, respectively — disagreed with Trauger.

Judges: Law mostly OK, but some portions 'potentially unconstitutional'

Noting that Tennessee's "registration laws are broad and complicated," the judges said the law regulates registrants in "many ways previously endorsed by the courts."

But as for perhaps the most restrictive parts of Tennessee's law — which restrict where people on the registry can live, work and travel — the court acknowledged them as "potentially unconstitutional" but said the plaintiffs hadn't sued the right people, so the court can't do anything about it. (The plaintiffs sued Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch and Gov. Bill Lee. The appeals court dismissed Lee from the case.)

"The potentially unconstitutional portions — those provisions categorizing offenders and prohibiting them from living, working, and traveling within certain areas — are enforced by a diffusion of state officers and prosecutors which are not parties here," the judges wrote.

Still, it's possible that something Rausch is responsible for might not pass muster, the judges said. They are sending the case back to Trauger to decide that and then enter a new order.

"Based on the record before this court, we cannot say with finality that Director Rausch does not enforce any unconstitutional provisions of the Tennessee Act, but the district court can make that determination on remand," the judges wrote.

Specifically, they said categorizing registrants as violent or non-violent sexual offenders based on the crime they were convicted of "without an individualized assessment" may be "questionable" under court precedent.

More: Tennessee's legal struggles with its sex offender registry could cost taxpayers

What does Tennessee's sex offender registry do?

Registrants must follow residence, work and travel restrictions, including a prohibition against living or working within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares or public parks. Much of their information is broadly disseminated and reported to businesses. In 2014, the General Assembly passed a provision that placed offenders against children on the registry for the rest of their lives.

There is little to no proof that sex offender registries are effective at reducing crime. The state has admitted as much, writing in a 2021 lawsuit: “Defendants have no evidence showing that the Act generally reduces the incidence of criminal offenses, other than statements of law enforcement,” and “Defendants have no empirical evidence showing that the Act provides any other societal benefits, other than statements of law enforcement.”

One lawyer following the case was expecting the appeals court to rule against the law given its similarities to a Michigan law that was partially struck down by the court in 2016.

More: Prosecutors said she was a victim. She still had to register as a sex offender in Tennessee.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN sex offender registry: Appeals court upholds law, reversing ruling