United States Second Circuit

Orders construing a court-approved stipulation of settlement as preventing New York State officials from enforcing recent legal changes involving New York-s Sex Offender Registration Act, and enjoining such enforcement against convicted sex offenders, are vacated as: 1) the stipulation was negotiated to avoid litigation over the procedures by which plaintiffs-convicted sex offenders- risk levels would be redetermined; 2) plaintiffs were entitled to the benefit of those bargained-for procedures; 3) plaintiffs did not bargain to have the stipulation assure them the continued scope of state statutes existing at the time of the stipulation; and 4) the stipulation could not be interpreted to preclude the application of subsequent legislative changes on matters distinct from the subject matter of the litigation.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/18/2006
• Decided 03/08/2007
• Published 03/09/2007

Judges

• NEWMAN, Circuit Judge., Before: NEWMAN, CABRANES, and POOLER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Richard Dearing, Asst. Solicitor Gen., New York, N.Y. (Eliot Spitzer, N.Y. State Atty. Gen., Louis H. Willenken, Asst. Atty. Gen., Michael S. Belohlavek, Senior Counsel, Office of the N.Y. State Atty. Gen., New York, N.Y., on the brief), for Defendants-Appellants., Thomas O'Brien, The Legal Aid Society, New York, N.Y., for Plaintiffs-Appellees.