Troupe v. Attorney Gen. of the U.S.

317 F. Supp. 3d 350
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedJuly 11, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 17–cv–00875 (TSC)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 317 F. Supp. 3d 350 (Troupe v. Attorney Gen. of the U.S.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Troupe v. Attorney Gen. of the U.S., 317 F. Supp. 3d 350 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

TANYA S. CHUTKAN, United States District Judge

Plaintiff, appearing pro se , challenges the constitutionality of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ("SORNA"). Defendant has moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction (ECF No. 13), and Plaintiff has moved to amend the complaint, seeking to add new plaintiffs and new claims (ECF No. 20). For the reasons explained below, Defendant's motion will be GRANTED and Plaintiff's motion will be DENIED.1

I. BACKGROUND

In May 2010, Plaintiff was indicted in the Western District of Missouri on one count of distributing child pornography, one count of receiving child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography. Troupe v. United States , No. 10-03038-01-CR-S-ODS, 2014 WL 7330988, at *1 (W.D. Mo. Dec. 19, 2014). He pled guilty in August 2011 to the count of receiving child pornography and was sentenced to 180 months' imprisonment. Id. at *1-2. Plaintiff alleges that he "is required to comply with 42 U.S.C. §§ 16901 et seq. ," transferred to Title 34 of the U.S. Code effective Sept. 1, 2017. (Compl. ¶ 1). Although Plaintiff's current release date is not until July 16, 2023, https://www.bop.gov/inmateloc, he contends that the statute violates, among other things, "his fundamental right to privacy" and "constitutes an ex post facto law." (Compl. ¶ 2) (emphasis in original). Plaintiff "demands judgment" in his favor, asserting that the statute "misrepresents the social risk of non-violent, no-contact offenders who are determined to be low risk for recidivism and subjugate[s] them to punitive restrictions of a sex offender registry ... and damages their ability to integrate back into society." (Compl. at 5).

II. LEGAL STANDARD

"Federal district courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. They possess only that power authorized by Constitution and statute, which is not to be expanded by judicial decree." Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am. , 511 U.S. 375, 377, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994) (internal citations omitted). "Subject-matter jurisdiction can never be waived or forfeited"

*353because it "goes to the foundation of the court's power to resolve a case." Gonzalez v. Thaler , 565 U.S. 134, 141, 132 S.Ct. 641, 181 L.Ed.2d 619 (2012) ; Doe ex rel. Fein v. District of Columbia , 93 F.3d 861, 871 (D.C. Cir. 1996). Before proceeding to the merits of a claim, a court must satisfy itself that it has subject-matter jurisdiction to consider the claim. See Brown v. Jewell , 134 F.Supp.3d 170, 176 (D.D.C. 2015) (courts " 'have an independent obligation to determine whether subject-matter jurisdiction exists, even in the absence of a challenge from any party' ") (quoting Arbaugh v. Y & H Corp. , 546 U.S. 500, 514, 126 S.Ct. 1235, 163 L.Ed.2d 1097 (2006) ).

Federal courts are vested with the power of judicial review extending only to "Cases" and "Controversies." U.S. Const. art. III, § 2. Courts have, in interpreting this limitation on judicial power, "developed a series of principles termed 'justiciability doctrines,' among which are standing, ripeness, mootness, and the political question doctrine." Nat'l Treasury Emps. Union v. United States , 101 F.3d 1423, 1427 (D.C. Cir. 1996) (citing Allen v. Wright , 468 U.S. 737, 750, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984) ). The "core component of standing is an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III." Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife , 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). In order to satisfy the standing requirement, a plaintiff must establish at a minimum (1) that he has "suffered an injury in fact-an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized; and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical"; (2) that "a causal connection" exists "between the injury and the conduct complained of ..., and [is] not the result of the independent action of some third party not before the court"; and (3) that the injury will "likely" be redressed by a favorable decision. Id. at 560-61

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Bluebook (online)
317 F. Supp. 3d 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/troupe-v-attorney-gen-of-the-us-cadc-2018.