Those lawyers are expected to ask the appellate court to block prosecutors from issuing notices until the Third Circuit determines for itself whether the law is constitutional.
``The state has won a very important case today, but it doesn't bring us any finality,'' said Peter Verniero, Gov. Whitman's chief of staff, alluding to the likelihood of further challenges to the law.
Indeed, David Rocah, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, called Bissell's decision ``only the first round'' and said: ``The case will continue to be argued, and hopefully, we'll get a different result.''
Under the community notice portion of Megan's Law, county prosecutors evaluate offenders for their potential risk when they are released from prison. Schools and youth groups are to be told about offenders deemed to be a moderate risk. For high-risk offenders, police are to tell neighbors that the released offender has moved nearby.
The challenge before Bissell hinged largely on whether the registration and notification law for sex offenders was punitive.
If it was, opponents argued, then it violated two provisions of the U.S. Constitution. One is the ex post facto clause barring legislation that retroactively alters a criminal law by increasing the punishment for a crime after it was committed. The other is the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy, which protects against multiple punishments for the same offense.
Bissell had imposed a temporary order on March 13 that blocked notifications about all offenders convicted before Megan's Law was enacted in October 1994. He did so to give himself time to weigh the constitutional challenges to the law.
At the time, Bissell said he believed that the challengers had a good chance of proving Megan's Law to be unconstitutional.
