116
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
public notification regimen, which permits placement of the registrant's face on a webpage under the label "Registered Sex Offender," calls to mind shaming punishments once used to mark an offender as someone to be shunned. See ante, at 111-112 (Stevens, J., dissenting in No. 01-729 and concurring in judgment in No. 01-1231); ante, at 109 (Souter, J., concurring in judgment).
Telling too, as Justice Souter observes, past crime alone, not current dangerousness, is the "touchstone" triggering the Act's obligations. Ibid. (opinion concurring in judgment); see ante, at 112-113 (Stevens, J., dissenting in No. 01-729 and concurring in judgment in No. 01-1231). This touchstone adds to the impression that the Act retributively targets past guilt, i. e., that it "revisit[s] past crimes [more than it] prevent[s] future ones." Ante, at 109 (Souter, J., concurring in judgment); see Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U. S., at 168.
Tending the other way, I acknowledge, the Court has ranked some laws civil and nonpunitive although they impose significant disabilities or restraints. See, e. g., Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U. S. 603 (1960) (termination of accrued disability benefits payable to deported resident aliens); Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U. S. 346 (1997) (civil confinement of mentally ill sex offenders). The Court has also deemed some laws non-punitive despite "punitive aspects." See United States v. Ursery, 518 U. S. 267, 290 (1996).
What ultimately tips the balance for me is the Act's excessiveness in relation to its nonpunitive purpose. See Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U. S., at 169. As respondents concede, see Brief for Respondents 38, the Act has a legitimate civil purpose: to promote public safety by alerting the public to potentially recidivist sex offenders in the community. See ante, at 102-103 (majority opinion). But its scope notably exceeds this purpose. The Act applies to all convicted sex offenders, without regard to their future dangerousness. And the duration of the reporting requirement is keyed not
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