King Grant-Davis v. Alan Wilson

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Decided: November 3, 2023
• Docket: 21-2157
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

USCA4 Appeal: 21-2157 Doc: 30 Filed: 11/03/2023 Pg: 1 of 3

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 21-2157

KING GRANT-DAVIS,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v.

ALAN WILSON, South Carolina Attorney General; MARK KEEL, Chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division; MERRICK B. GARLAND, United States Attorney General; MARCIA L. FUDGE, United States Secretary of Department of Housing and Urban Development,

Defendants - Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Charleston. David C. Norton, District Judge. (2:19-cv-00392-DCN)

Submitted: September 21, 2023 Decided: November 3, 2023

Before GREGORY and THACKER, Circuit Judges, and FLOYD, Senior Circuit Judge.

Dismissed in part and affirmed in part by unpublished per curiam opinion.

King Grant-Davis, Appellant Pro Se. Barbara Murcier Bowens, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Columbia, South Carolina; Leon David Leggett, III, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.

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PER CURIAM:

King Grant-Davis filed a second amended complaint raising facial and as-applied

challenges to the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry Act (“SORA”), S.C. Code Ann.

§§ 23-3-400 to -555 (2007 & Supp. 2022), the federal Sex Offender Registration and

Notification Act, 34 U.S.C. §§ 20901-20962, and related federal laws. After Defendants

moved to dismiss, Grant-Davis moved to amend or correct his second amended complaint

and for partial summary judgment. The magistrate judge denied the motion to amend or

correct and recommended granting Defendants’ motions to dismiss and denying Grant-

Davis’ motion for partial summary judgment. Over Grant-Davis’ objections, the district

court accepted the recommendation of the magistrate judge, dismissed Grant-Davis’

second amended complaint, and denied as moot his motion for partial summary judgment.

The court also denied Grant-Davis’ motion to reconsider the magistrate judge’s order

denying Grant-Davis’ motion to amend or correct the second amended complaint. We

dismiss in part and affirm in part.

In Powell v. Keel, the Supreme Court of South Carolina held that “SORA’s lifetime

registration requirement is unconstitutional absent any opportunity for judicial review to

assess the risk of re-offending.” 860 S.E.2d 344, 352 (S.C. 2021). The court, however,

“reserve[d] the effective date of this opinion for twelve (12) months from the date of filing

to allow the General Assembly to correct the deficiency in the statute regarding judicial

review.” Id. Because Grant-Davis raised a similar challenge to SORA, we placed his

appeal in abeyance for the effective date of Powell or until the South Carolina General

Assembly amended SORA consistent with Powell.

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The South Carolina General Assembly acted after Powell, and SORA now provides

that a sex offender may apply to be removed from the registry and outlines a process of

judicial review if that application is denied. See S.C. Code Ann. § 23-3-462 to -463.

Because the South Carolina General Assembly has remedied the constitutional defect in

SORA identified in Powell, we conclude that this issue is moot. See Cela v. Garland,

75 F.4th 355, 360 (4th Cir. 2023) (“A case becomes moot when it is impossible for a court

to grant any effectual relief to the prevailing party.” (internal quotation marks omitted));

Eden, LLC v. Justice, 36 F.4th 166, 170 (4th Cir. 2022) (“[A] case may become moot after

entry of a district court’s judgment and while an appeal is pending.”). We therefore dismiss

for lack of jurisdiction Grant-Davis’ appeal of the district court’s dismissal of this portion

of Count 4. See Cela, 75 F.4th at 360.

Finding no reversible error, we affirm the remainder of the district court’s judgment.

Grant-Davis v. Wilson, No. 2:19-cv-00392-DCN (D.S.C. Sept. 20 & 27, 2021). We

dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately

presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional

process.

DISMISSED IN PART, AFFIRMED IN PART