560 U.S. 438 (2010)
The federal failure-to-register crime covers only interstate travel after SORNA took effect, not moves made before it.
Good law. Still followed. Later cases may have narrowed it — see Scope. Binds every court in the country on the federal question it decides.
Thomas Carr was registered in Alabama and moved to Indiana before SORNA took effect in 2006, without registering there. He was later indicted under 18 U.S.C. § 2250, the federal crime of traveling interstate and failing to register. The Seventh Circuit held that his earlier move could support the charge.
By 6–3, the Court reversed. Section 2250 requires that a person, after becoming subject to SORNA, travel across state lines and then fail to register. The present-tense “travels” does not reach trips taken before the law applied.
Carr limits federal prosecution to people who move after SORNA reaches them. It also shows the Court’s habit in SORNA cases of reading the statute’s words closely rather than assuming Congress meant the widest reach.
Because it decided on the statute’s wording, the Court did not reach Carr’s Ex Post Facto argument. It says nothing about state failure-to-register crimes, which can still apply.
Last verified against the sources above on September 30, 2026.
These are plain-language summaries of court decisions, written for general education. A ruling binds only the courts beneath the court that issued it, later decisions and new laws can change what it means, and how it applies to any one person depends on facts a summary cannot capture. Read the opinion itself, and talk to a lawyer licensed in your state before relying on any case. This page is not legal advice.