Court grants cert in six new cases, including Salinas and a SORNA challenge

This wikilog article is a draft, it was not published yet.

by: Ryan • January 12, 2013 • no comments

A summary of the cases granted cert can be found at SCOTUSblog here.

One of the cases is the Salinas case I mentioned in this post on the right of silence prior to arrest. It asks, does a right exist for an individual who has not been arrested but is interviewed by police, and was not given Miranda warnings, when that silence was used to help prove guilt at a trial?

There is also a SORNA challenge:

Issue: (1) Whether the court of appeals erred in conducting its constitutional analysis on the premise that :respondent was not under a federal registration obligation until the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) was enacted, when pre-SORNA federal law obligated him to register as a sex offender; and (2) whether the court of appeals erred in holding that Congress lacks the Article I authority to provide for criminal penalties under 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a)(2)(A), as applied to a person who was convicted of a sex offense under federal law and completed his criminal sentence before SORNA was enacted.

I don't know how much relevance that case would have to any state court practioners. But I hightlight it for this reason: if you do federal law, and your client is charged under SORNA, please contact me. I have a constitutional challenge to SORNA that I would be happy to share.