USA v. Daniel Carr

Filing

OPINION filed : AFFIRMED. Decision not for publication pursuant to local rule 206. Alice M. Batchelder (AUTHORING), Chief Circuit Judge; David W. McKeague, Circuit Judge; Gordon J. Quist, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Michigan, sitting by designation.

Case: 11-5725

Document: 006111357143

Filed: 07/03/2012

Page: 1

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
File Name: 12a0711n.06
FILED
Case No. 11-5725

Jul 03, 2012

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

LEONARD GREEN, Clerk

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
DANIEL G. CARR,
Defendant-Appellant.
_______________________________________

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ON APPEAL FROM THE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT FOR THE MIDDLE
DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE

BEFORE: BATCHELDER, Chief Judge; McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge; and QUIST, District
Judge.*
ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Chief Judge. Appellant Daniel G. Carr appeals his conviction
for violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 42 U.S.C. § 16901 et
seq., by failing to register with the State of Tennessee as a sex offender. His appeal raises three
challenges to his conviction. First, he argues that SORNA should be construed to require registration
only after a state fully implements SORNA, which Tennessee had not done at the time of his offense.
In support, he contends that the Commerce Clause compels accepting his proposed construction.
Second, he argues that since he did not receive notice that SORNA required him to register with
Tennessee as a sex offender, applying SORNA to him violates his due process rights. Third, he
argues that SORNA violates the Tenth Amendment by forcing state officials to operate the state’s

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Honorable Gordon J. Quist, Senior United States District Judge for the W estern District of Michigan,
sitting by designation.

Case: 11-5725

Document: 006111357143

Filed: 07/03/2012

Page: 2

No. 11-5725, United States v. Carr

sex offender registry in compliance with SORNA before the state has chosen to adopt SORNA’s
registration requirements. After briefing had been concluded in Carr’s appeal, this Court published
our opinions in United States v. Felts, _ F.3d _, No. 11-5237, 2012 WL 762977 (6th Cir. March 12,
2012), and United States v. Coleman, _F.3d_, No. 10-5283, 2012 WL 1034016 (6th Cir. March 29,
2012). Together, these opinions conclusively address all three of Carr’s legal challenges. Felts is
particularly dispositive, rejecting legal challenges that are the same as Carr’s on facts that are very
similar to Carr’s. Indeed, the similarity is so strong that Carr described that case and the arguments
it presented on appeal as essentially “identical” to his, and conceded that most of his arguments were
directly foreclosed by Felts’s holding. And Coleman’s holding bolts the door that Felts had
effectively already closed on Carr’s sub-argument that the Commerce Clause requires this Court to
accept his construction of SORNA.
Accordingly, we AFFIRM.

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