570 U.S. 387 (2013)
Congress can apply SORNA to someone with a federal conviction who was already under a federal registration duty when released.
Good law. Still followed. Later cases may have narrowed it — see Scope. Binds every court in the country on the federal question it decides.
Anthony Kebodeaux was convicted of a sex offense by a military court and served his sentence before SORNA was enacted. He was later prosecuted under SORNA for failing to update his registration after moving within Texas, and argued that Congress had no power to regulate him once his federal sentence was complete.
By 7–2, the Court upheld the conviction. At the time of his offense and conviction he was already subject to a federal registration requirement under the earlier Wetterling Act, so SORNA’s changes were a permissible modification of an existing federal obligation under the Necessary and Proper Clause.
It confirms that federal registration duties for people with federal or military convictions can outlast the sentence itself, and it reinforces Comstock’s broad reading of Congress’s power over people it once had in custody.
The decision rests on the fact that a federal registration duty already applied to him. It did not decide whether Congress could regulate someone with no prior federal tie, or whether SORNA applies to purely intrastate conduct generally.
Last verified against the sources above on September 30, 2026.
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