Roe v. Attorney General

Summary

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reviewed a preliminary injunction challenging the 1999 Massachusetts sex offender registration statute. The court held that requiring convicted sex offenders to provide their names and addresses before an individualized hearing, and transmitting that registration information to law enforcement, did not violate procedural due process under article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. The court vacated the preliminary injunction.

Holdings

1. The statute may require convicted sex offenders to provide the board with their names and current home and work addresses before an individualized hearing.
2. The board may transmit an offender's registration information to law-enforcement agencies before the offender receives an individualized hearing because law-enforcement access does not, on this facial challenge, infringe a constitutionally protected liberty or privacy interest.
3. Speculative possibilities of police leaks, harassment, or improper use of registration information do not establish a facial due process violation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether requiring convicted sex offenders to mail their names and current addresses to the Sex Offender Registry Board before an individualized hearing concerning present dangerousness violates procedural due process under article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
2. Whether the board's transmission of registration information to law-enforcement agencies before an individualized hearing violates procedural due process.
3. Whether the Superior Court abused its discretion by granting a preliminary injunction based on the conclusion that preregistration and prehearing law-enforcement notification violated due process.

Disposition

vacated