No. 165008 (Mich. Dec. 19, 2025)
Michigan’s 2021 registry law is punishment — but for a Tier III offense, it is not cruel or unusual.
Good law. Still followed. Later cases may have narrowed it — see Scope. Final word on that state’s own law and constitution — in that state only.
Kardasz was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and resentenced to 25 to 40 years with lifetime electronic monitoring and lifetime registration under the 2021 SORA. He argued that lifetime registration was cruel or unusual punishment under the Michigan Constitution.
Five justices held that the 2021 SORA is punishment. They also held that it is not “cruel or unusual” under Const. 1963, art. 1, § 16, either on its face or as applied to him. Leave to appeal was denied on the electronic monitoring claim. Justice Zahra would have held SORA is not punishment.
By holding that the current law is punishment, Kardasz laid the foundation for People v. Smith nine months later, which relied on it to bar applying the 2021 law to pre-2011 offenses.
It is not an ex post facto ruling and did not decide retroactivity. It did not do a separate federal Eighth Amendment analysis, and its cruel-or-unusual holding concerned a Tier III offense.
Last verified against the sources above on September 30, 2026.
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