Due Process Claim

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Michael Beley, et al. v. City of Chicago

Case No.: 17-1449

Officials: FLAUM, EASTERBROOK, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Due Process Claim

Michael Beley and Douglas Montgomery represent a class of sex offenders who allege that the City of Chicago refused to register them under the Illinois Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) because they could not produce proof of address. If true, that might have violated SORA, because the Act provides a mechanism for registering the homeless. Yet Beley and Montgomery contend that it violated their right to procedural due process—according to the plaintiffs, the City used constitutionally inadequate procedures to determine whether they had satisfied SORA’s registration requirements.

But the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees due process only when the State deprives someone of life, liberty, or property. Beley and Montgomery insist that the City deprived them of liberty: they assert a right to register under SORA. For reasons we explain below, however, this is not a cognizable liberty interest. And without a cognizable liberty interest, the plaintiffs have no due process claim.

We affirm the district court, though on a different ground. The City argues before us, as it did below, that the ability to register under SORA is not a cognizable liberty interest. We agree.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.