Nat'l Assoc. for Rational Sexual Offense Laws v. Stein
| Decision Date | 30 July 2019 |
| Docket Number | 1:17CV53 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of North Carolina |
| Parties | NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR RATIONAL SEXUAL OFFENSE LAWS; NC RSOL; and JOHN DOE, Plaintiffs, v. JOSHUA STEIN, Attorney General of the State of North Carolina; and DISTRICT ATTORNEYS LORRIN FREEMAN (District 10); PAT NADOLSKI (District 15A); and KRISTY NEWTON (District 16A), Defendants. |
Plaintiffs bring this action,1 pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ("Section 1983" or "§ 1983"), challenging the constitutionality of five amendments to Article 27A of Chapter 14 of the North Carolina General Statutes that pertain solely to registered sex offenders. (See ECF No. 33.) Before the Court is Defendants' Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint. (ECF No. 40.) For the reasons stated below, the Court will deny Defendants' motion.
Plaintiffs in this action are John Doe,2 an individual required to register as a sex offender in North Carolina, and two non-profit organizations that advocate for suchindividuals. (ECF No. 33 ¶¶ 23, 29, 31, 44, 46.) Plaintiff John Doe currently resides in North Carolina Judicial District 15A and was convicted for sexual assault in 2002. (Id. ¶¶ 22-23.) Plaintiff National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws ("NARSOL") and Plaintiff NC RSOL (collectively "Organizational Plaintiffs") are "voluntary membership organization[s]" whose "purpose is to advocate, both legislatively and legally, for the reform of state and national laws regarding sex offender registries and legal restrictions placed on registrants . . . and to seek to vindicate the constitutional rights of its members." (Id. ¶¶ 29-31, 44-46.) Organizational Plaintiffs' members include, among others, "current registrants subject to the provisions of the law challenged [in the Complaint] as violating the Ex Post Facto clause of the United States Constitution." (Id. ¶¶ 32, 47.)
"Defendant Joshua Stein is the Attorney General of the State of North Carolina," who is "charged with defending the interests of the State in all criminal and civil suits." (Id. ¶¶ 13-14.) Defendants Lorrin Freeman, Pat Nadolski, and Kristy Newton (collectively, "Individual DA's") are North Carolina district attorneys for Judicial Districts 10, 15A, and 16A, respectively, each of whom "are responsible for the prosecution of crimes in their respective judicial districts." (Id. ¶ 18.) All defendants have been sued in their official capacities. (Id. ¶¶ 13, 18.)
According to Plaintiff's Complaint, North Carolina passed its first set of statutes pertaining solely to registered sex offenders (the "registry law") in 1995. (Id. ¶¶ 8 n.1, 59.) The registry law is a group of statutes "codified at Article 27A of the North Carolina Criminal Code," N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-208.5 through § 14-208.45. (Id. ¶ 8 n.1.) "Th[e] initial registry law did no more than create a database of persons who had been convicted of a relatively smallnumber of qualifying offenses." (Id. ¶ 60.) Under this registry law, among other things: (i)"[r]egistration terminated automatically after ten (10) years and a person could petition for removal from the registry"; (ii) "[t]he registry was maintained by the local sheriff and was available to the public only upon request by a member of the public regarding a specific individual"; (iii) "[r]egistrants were required to mail in notification of any change of address"; (iv) "[v]iolation of the registry law was a Class 3 misdemeanor"; and (v) the law "applied to all persons committing a qualifying offense or who were released from a penal institution after the effective date." (Id. ¶¶ 61-64, 66 (citing 1995 N.C. Sess. Laws 545).) Since that time, the North Carolina legislature has passed a number of amendments to the registry law. (See id. ¶¶ 68-116.)
In this action, Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of the following amendments to the registry law:
(Id. ¶¶ 8a.-8e.) Plaintiffs allege that the retroactive application of each of the above amendments violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution. (Id. ¶¶ 277-281.) Defendants move to dismiss Plaintiffs' Complaint pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.3 (See ECF No. 40.)
Under Rule 12(b)(1), a party may seek dismissal based on the court's "lack of subject-matter jurisdiction." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1). Subject-matter jurisdiction is a threshold issue that relates to the court's power to hear a case and must be decided before a determination on the merits of the case. Constantine v. Rectors & Visitors of George Mason Univ., 411 F.3d 474, 479-80 (4th Cir. 2005). A motion under Rule 12(b)(1) raises the question "whether [the plaintiff]has a right to be in the district court at all and whether the court has the power to hear and dispose of [the] claim." Holloway v. Pagan River Dockside Seafood, Inc., 669 F.3d 448, 452 (4th Cir. 2012). The burden of proving subject-matter jurisdiction rests with the plaintiff. McNutt v. Gen. Motors Acceptance Corp. of Ind., 298 U.S. 178, 189 (1936); Adams v. Bain, 697 F.2d 1213, 1219 (4th Cir. 1982). When evaluating a Rule 12(b)(1) motion to dismiss, a court should grant the motion "only if the material jurisdictional facts are not in dispute and the moving party is entitled to prevail as a matter of law." Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac R.R. Co. v. United States, 945 F.2d 765, 768 (4th Cir. 1991). On a motion to dismiss for lack of standing, a court must construe the complaint in the plaintiff's favor, accepting as true the factual allegations in the complaint. Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501 (1975).
A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure "challenges the legal sufficiency of a complaint," including whether it meets the pleading standard of Rule 8(a)(2). Francis v. Giacomelli, 588 F.3d 186, 192 (4th Cir. 2009). Rule 8(a)(2) requires a complaint to contain "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief," Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2), thereby "giv[ing] the defendant fair notice of what the . . . claim is and the grounds upon which it rests," Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007) (quoting Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47 (1957)).
"A district court should dismiss a complaint pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) if, accepting all well-pleaded allegations in the complaint as true and drawing all reasonable factual inferences in the plaintiff's favor, the complaint does not allege 'enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Vitol, SA. v. Primerose Shipping Co., 708 F.3d 527, 539 (4th Cir.2013) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570). A claim is plausible when the complaint alleges facts sufficient to allow "the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Johnson v. Am. Towers, LLC, 781 F.3d 693, 709 (4th Cir. 2015) (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009)). A complaint may fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted in two ways: first, by failing to state a valid legal cause of action, i.e., a cognizable claim, see Holloway, 669 F.3d at 452; or second, by failing to allege sufficient facts to support a legal cause of action, see Painter's Mill Grille, LLC v. Brown, 716 F.3d 342, 350 (4th Cir. 2013).
While a court's evaluation of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss is "generally limited to a review of the allegations of the complaint itself," a court may properly consider documents "attached to a complaint as exhibits." Goines v. Valley Cmty. Servs. Bd., 822 F.3d 159, 165-66 (4th Cir. 2016). Therefore, in addition to considering the Complaint, the Court will also consider the exhibits attached to the Complaint. See id.
Defendants first argue that Plaintiffs' lawsuit is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. (See ECF No. 42 at 4-6.) Because the Eleventh Amendment acts as a jurisdictional bar, courts must resolve the issue of Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity before reaching the merits of a case. See Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 677-78 (1974).
Section 1983 provides a cause of action for the deprivation of a constitutional or federal statutory right by a "person" acting under color of state law. See 42 U.S.C. § 1983. However,"the doctrine of sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment4 . . . prevent[s] a state from being sued by one of its own citizens without its consent." Waste Mgmt. Holdings, Inc. v. Gilmore, 252 F.3d 316, 329 (4th Cir. 2001) (footnote added). Thus, "neither a State nor its officials acting in their official capacities are 'pe...
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