Paul P. Ex Rel. Laura L. v. Verniero

170 F.3d 396
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedMarch 16, 1999
Docket97-5791
StatusUnknown
Cited by5 cases

This text of 170 F.3d 396 (Paul P. Ex Rel. Laura L. v. Verniero) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul P. Ex Rel. Laura L. v. Verniero, 170 F.3d 396 (3d Cir. 1999).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

I.

Plaintiff Paul P. sues on his behalf and on behalf of a class of persons who, having been eonvicted of specified sex crimes, are required to comply with N. J. Stat. Ann. § 2c:7-1 et seq., known as “Megan’s Law,” which provides for a system of registration and community notification. Named as defendants are the Attorney General of New Jersey and numerous County Prosecutors (collectively, the “State defendants”).

In a related action, E.B. v. Verniero, 119 F.3d 1077 (3d Cir.1997), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 118 S.Ct. 1039, 140 L.Ed.2d 105 (1998), this court rejected the claims of comparably situated persons that the community notification requirements violate the Double Jeopardy Clause or the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution. That holding of E.B. was predicated on the conclusion that the notification required by Megan’s Law does not constitute punishment. Judge, now Chief Judge, Becker dissented to this portion of the holding. The E.B. decision also held that “[t]he Due Process Clause ... would be violated by any Tier 2 or Tier 3 notification that occurred without a prior opportunity to challenge the registrant’s classification and notification plan in a hearing at which the prosecutor has the burden of persuasion and must prove her case by clear and convincing evidence.” Id. at 1111.

In this case, plaintiffs raise a challenge to Megan’s Law that they claim is different from that considered in E.B. They argue that the statutory requirement that the class members provide extensive information to local law enforcement personnel, including each registrant’s current biographical data, physical description, home address, place of employment, schooling, and a description and license plate number of the registrant’s vehicle, and the subsequent community notification is a violation of their constitutionally protected right to privacy.

The statutory scheme is described in detail in E.B., and we refer only briefly to the salient details. We explained the registration requirements as follows:

[399]*399The registrant must provide the following information to the chief law enforcement officer of the municipality in which he resides: name, social security number, age, race, sex, date of birth, height, weight, hair and eye color, address of legal residence, address of any current temporary legal residence, and date and place of employment. N.J.S.A 2C:7-4b(l). He must confirm his address every ninety days, notify the municipal law enforcement agency if he moves, and re-register with the law enforcement agency of any new municipality. N.J.S.A 2C:7-2d to e.

Id. at 1082 (quoting Artway v. Attorney General, 81 F.3d 1235, 1243 (3d Cir.1996)).

The information provided by the registrant is put into a central registry, open to other law enforcement personnel but not to public inspection. Law enforcement officials then use the data provided to apply a “Risk Assessment Scale,” a numerical scoring system, to determine the registrant’s “risk of offense” and the tier in which the registrant should be classified. In the case of Tier 1 registrants, notification is given only to law enforcement agents “likely to encounter” the registrant. Tier 2, or “moderate risk,” notification is given to law enforcement agents, schools, and community organizations “likely to encounter” the registrant. Tier 3, or “high risk,” notification goes to all members of the public “likely to encounter” the registrant. Notifications generally contain a warning that the information is confidential and should not be disseminated to others, as well as an admonition that actions taken against the registrant, such as assaults, are illegal.

The prosecutor must provide the registrant with notice of the proposed notification. A pre-notification judicial review process is available for any registrant who wishes to challenge his or her classification.

The plaintiffs are Tier 2 and Tier 3 registrants who have been certified as a class and whose offenses were committed after the enactment of Megan’s Law. When Paul P. filed the original complaint on June 16, 1997, alleging that the statute violated plaintiffs’ constitutional rights of privacy and due process, as well as the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy and cruel and unusual punishment, E.B. had not yet been decided. This court decided E.B. shortly thereafter. The State defendants, relying on E.B., moved for summary judgment; plaintiffs argued in opposition that E.B. did not dispose of their privacy claim and that discovery was required, inter alia, on the due process claim. On October 29, 1997, the District Court granted the State defendants’ motion for summary judgment as to all but the plaintiffs’ due process claim. See Paul P. v. Verniero, 982 F.Supp. 961 (D.N.J.1997). At the request of the plaintiffs and with the consent of the Attorney General, the court certified the order as appealable under Federal Rule of Civil Procure 54(b). The court later granted summary judgment for the State defendants on the due process claim. The plaintiff class limits its appeal to the claim that Megan’s Law violates its constitutional rights to privacy. The State defendants and the United States, which has filed an amicus brief, vigorously support the statute.

II.

The legal foundation for plaintiffs’ claim is the Supreme Court’s recognition that there is “a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy,” protected by the United States Constitution. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 152, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973). This “guarantee of personal privacy” covers “only personal rights that can be deemed ‘fundamental’ or ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’ ” Id. This privacy right “has some extension to activities relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education.” Id. at 152-53 (citations omitted).

Plaintiffs argue that Megan’s Law infringes upon their constitutionally protected privacy interests in two ways. One is by the dissemination of information about them, most particularly by disseminating both then-home addresses and a “compilation of information which would otherwise remain ‘scattered’ or ‘wholly forgotten.’ ” Appellants’ Br. at 12. Their other claim is that the community notification infringes upon their [400]*400“privacy interests in their most intimate relationships — those with their spouses, children, parents, and other family members.” Appellants’ Br. at 12.

Plaintiffs thus seek to invoke the two categories of privacy interests identified by the Supreme Court in Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 97 S.Ct. 869, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977), where the Court stated: “The cases sometimes characterized as protecting ‘privacy’ have in fact involved at least two different kinds of interests. One is the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters, and another is the interest in independence in making certain kinds of important decisions.” Id. at 598-600, 97 S.Ct. 869 (footnotes omitted).

The parties dispute the extent to which our decision in E.B. is dispositive of the privacy issue before us in this case.

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Paul v. Verniero
170 F.3d 396 (Third Circuit, 1999)

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170 F.3d 396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-p-ex-rel-laura-l-v-verniero-ca3-1999.