John Doe v. Jindal

JOHN DOE v. HONORABLE BOBBY JINDAL, ET AL.

CIVIL ACTION NO: 15-1283 SECTION: R(2)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA

November 18, 2015

ORDER AND REASONS

The "state defendants"¹ and defendant Michael Harrison move the Court to dismiss plaintiff's civil rights complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6).² For the following reasons, the Court grants the motions and dismisses Doe's claims with prejudice.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Parties

Pseudonymous plaintiff "John Doe"³ is a recent resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, and a registered sex offender. Doe was convicted and sentenced in Alabama state court for Transmitting Obscene Material to a Minor by Computer. Doe now challenges as unconstitutional part of Louisiana's sex offender registry laws on substantive due process and equal protection grounds.

Doe sues the following nine defendants, all in their official capacities. Defendant Governor Bobby Jindal is Chief Executive of the State of Louisiana, who is bound by the Louisiana Constitution to see that state laws are faithfully executed. According to Doe, Governor Jindal also appoints the heads of each department of Louisiana's executive branch, including the Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections.⁴

Defendant Buddy Caldwell is the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana. According to Doe, as attorney general, Caldwell has final authority regarding criminal justice policy in Louisiana, which includes administering,maintaining, and enforcing Louisiana's registry laws and the State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry.⁵

Defendant James "Jimmy" LeBlanc is the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. According to Doe, the Department obtains the information necessary to maintain the State Sex Offender and Child Predatory Registry. As Secretary of the Department, LeBlanc oversees all department programs, formulates rules and regulations within the department, and determines department policy regarding operations.⁶

Defendant Michael D. Edmonson is the Deputy Secretary of the Department, who is in charge of Public Safety Services, and the Superintendent of the Louisiana State Police. According to Doe, in these positions, Edmonson maintains ultimate authority over the State Police's policies and practices, including how sex offender information is maintained and disseminated within the State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry.⁷

Defendant Adam White is the Deputy Superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, who is in charge of Support Services. Support Services oversees the policies and practices of Louisiana's Bureau of Identification andInformation, which maintains sex offender information and releases that information to the public.⁸

Defendant Leland Falcon heads Technical Support Services, a branch of Louisiana State Police Support Services.⁹ Defendant Stacey Barrett heads the Bureau of Identification and Information, which falls under Louisiana State Police Technical Support Services.¹⁰ Defendant Christopher Eskew is the Deputy Director of the State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry.¹¹

Defendant Michael Harrison is the Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department. According to Doe, as NOPD Superintendent, Harrison maintains and administers the State Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry in Orleans Parish. Harrison's duties include collecting information from sex offenders living in Orleans Parish and disseminating that information to the public.¹²

B. Factual Background

1. Doe's Alabama Conviction and Louisiana Sex Offender Registration Requirements

On April 30, 2012, Doe pled guilty in Alabama state court to Transmitting Obscene Material to a Minor by Computer, an Alabama sex offense. As part of Doe's sentence, the Alabama court ordered Doe to register himself as a sex offender for the rest of his life. According to Doe, the Alabama court did not determine that Doe was dangerous or otherwise needed to register for life because of some personal characteristic or disposition. Rather, Alabama law mandates that every sex offender required to register must do so for life.¹³

Doe now lives in Louisiana. According to Doe, when he transferred his sex offender registration to Louisiana, the State, through the Louisiana Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information, determined that because the Alabama court sentenced Doe to lifetime sex offender registration, Doe must register himself on Louisiana's State Sex Offender and Child Predatory Registry for the rest of his life as well. In addition, the Bureau determined that Doe must periodically renew his sex offender registration in person with the New Orleans Police Department every three months. The Bureau also rested this determination on the Alabama court's imposing lifetime registration as part of Doe's sentence.¹⁴

On April 14, 2015, Doe filed this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 civil rights lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from defendants. Doe alleges that the portions of Louisiana's sex offender registry laws on which the Bureau relied in making its duration of registration and frequency of in-person renewal determinations are unconstitutional.¹⁵

2. Louisiana's Sex Offender Registry Laws

Louisiana maintains a comprehensive statutory scheme governing sex offender registry within the state. See La. Rev. Stat. § 15:540, et seq. ("Chapter 3-B. Registration of Sex Offenders, Sexually Violent Predators, and Child Predators). Doe challenges only two subsections within that overall scheme-Louisiana Revised Statute § 15:544(C) and § 15:542.1.3(B)(2)(c).

Louisiana Revised Statute § 15:544 is the general provision addressing the duration of an offender's registration requirement. Subsection 544(C) provides, "[a] person who is required to register pursuant to the provisions of R.S. 15:542.1.3 shall register and maintain his registration . . . for the period of registration provided by the jurisdiction of conviction or for the period of registration provided by the provisions of this Section, whichever period is longer." La. Rev. Stat. § 15:544(C) (emphasis added). Revised Statute § 15:542.1.3 states that "[a]ny person who is convicted or adjudicated of an offense under the laws of another state, or military, territorial, foreign, tribal,or federal law [that] requires registration shall be subject to and shall comply with all of the registration requirements of this Chapter . . . ." La. Rev. Stat. § 15:542.1.3(A). Thus, under § 15:544(C), if a person is convicted of a sex offense in a state other than Louisiana, and that state's period of registration for the offense is longer than the registration period that Louisiana law would require, Louisiana applies the registration period required by the offender's state of conviction. See La. Rev. Stat. § 15:544.

Revised Statute § 15:542.1.3 also establishes how an offender's out-of-state conviction affects Louisiana's requirement that sex offenders residing here periodically renew their sex offender registration in person with the appropriate law enforcement agencies. According to subsection 542.1.3(A), once an offender establishes a residence in Louisiana, he must provide the Louisiana Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information certain information pertaining to his offense of conviction. The Bureau then determines the offender's period of registration and the frequency of his in-person periodic renewals by analogizing the offender's out-of-state offense of conviction to the "most comparable Louisiana offense." La. Rev. Stat. § 15:542.1.3(B)(2)(a). But when the offender's jurisdiction of conviction requires lifetime registration, the statute provides as follows:

If the period of registration required by the offender's jurisdiction of conviction is for the duration of the offender's lifetime, the bureau shall not be required to determine which time period ofregistration and the frequency of in-person periodic renewals that would be applicable to the offender while residing in Louisiana . . . . The duration of the registration for any such offender shall be for the duration of his lifetime pursuant to R.S. 15:544, and the frequency of in-person periodic renewals for the offender shall be every three months from the date of initial registration . . . .

La. Rev. Stat. § 15:542.1.3(B)(2)(c).

In other words, if the offender's jurisdiction of conviction imposed a lifetime registration requirement, the Bureau will not undertake the "most comparable Louisiana offense" analysis. Instead, Louisiana will also impose upon the offender a lifetime registration requirement and require him to periodically renew his registration in person every three months. See id.

Doe alleges that the special provisions in sections 15:544(C) and 15:542.1.3(B)(2)(c) for offenders sentenced to lifetime registration by out-of-state courts violate principles of substantive due process, as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by treating similarly situated sex offenders differently depending on their state of conviction.¹⁶ Doe also alleges that treating out-of-state offenders differently implicates the fundamental right to travel, triggering strict scrutiny of Louisiana's registry provisions.¹⁷

C. Defendants' Motions to Dismiss

The "state defendants"-everyone but New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michael Harrison-move to dismiss Doe's complaint on two grounds. First, as to the claims against Governor Bobby Jindal, the state defendants argue that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction because Eleventh Amendment immunity bars Doe's official-capacity claims against the Governor.¹⁸ Second, as to Doe's remaining claims, the state defendants argue that Doe fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because the challenged portions of Louisiana's sex offender registry laws are constitutional.¹⁹

Defendant Michael Harrison...