Crowder

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) imposes criminal penalties on any person who “knowingly fails to register or update a registration as required by [SORNA].” 18 U.S.C. § 2250 (a). This appeal requires us to decide whether the government must prove that a defendant knew that SORNA imposed a registration requirement in order to convict a defendant of a violation of this statute. We join our sister circuits in holding that the government need not prove this knowledge element and affirm the district court.

I

In June 2007, Kevin Leroy Crowder was convicted of child molestation in Washington state court and sentenced to two years confinement, followed by three to four years community custody (i.e., probation). On June 22, 2007, he received and signed a certified copy of his judgment and sentence form, which informed him that as a sex offender, he was “required to register with the sheriff of the county of the state of Washington” where he resides, and that if he moved “out of Washington State,” he had to “send written notice within 10 days of moving to the county sheriff with whom [he] last registered in Washington State,” and then “register a new address,…