Professor Abner Greene was consulted for a Bloomberg Law article about a Supreme Court ruling on the registration requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
A divided court said in Gundy v. United States that Congress didn’t violate the non-delegation doctrine when it allowed the attorney general to decide if the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act’s registration requirements should apply to those convicted of sex crimes before the law’s passage.
The doctrine bars Congress from transferring its legislative power to another branch of government. Conservatives see the doctrine as a potential bulwark against Congress giving too much power to governmental agencies. But for decades, the high court has given Congress broad leeway to pass along its authority.
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Fordham Law’s Abner Greene, a constitutional scholar, said that, even if a majority reinvigorates the doctrine, they could do so minimally, or incrementally. “It’s impossible to know but the door is now clearly open.”
