OPINION

I. INTRODUCTION

This appeal presents a discrete question left unanswered by the United States Supreme Court in its recent decision rejecting a constitutional challenge to Alaska's sex offender registration statute. After he was convicted of a sex offense, John Doe1 received a suspended imposition of sentence (SIS), subject to satisfying specified conditions. When Doe's probationary period expired without imposition of sentence, the superior court set aside his conviction under authority of AS 12.55.085(e). The Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act (ASORA) 2 became effective soon after the court set aside Doe's conviction." ASORA requires persons convicted of sex offenses to register with the state and to provide and periodically update *400detailed personal information that the state then publishes on the Internet. We conclude that applying ASORA to a person whose conviction was set aside before ASORA became specifically applicable to convictions that were set aside violates the Alaska Constitution's guarantee of due process. We therefore remand for entry of an order enjoining the state from publishing Doe's personal information and requiring it to return all information Doe provided when he registered under protest.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

John Doe was found guilty after a bench trial on two counts of child sexual abuse for offenses he committed in 1987. He appeared before the superior court for sentencing in 1989. The court entered an order suspending the imposition of sentence, conditioned on Doe serving probation for three years, spending ninety days at a halfway house, completing 200 hours of community work service, and receiving mental health counseling. After one count was later dismissed, the superior court entered a "corrected modified order" on the remaining count in May 1991. The 1991 order again granted Doe a suspended imposition of sentence (SIS). So far as we can determine from the record, the state did not object to the 1991 SIS. In April 1994, as Doe's period of probation was expiring, the Alaska Department of Law gave the superior court written notice that the state did not oppose setting aside Doe's conviction; the superior court then entered a "discharge order." The discharge order observed that the period of probation had expired without imposition of sentence and that Doe was "entitled to be discharged" under AS 12.55.085(d) and Alaska Rule of Criminal Procedure 35.2; it consequently ordered that the "[ludgment of conviction is hereby set aside." 3

The legislature enacted the Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act (ASORA) in May 19944 ASORA became effective August 10, *4011994.5 It requires sex offenders present in Alaska to register with the Alaska Department of Corrections, local police, or the Alaska State Troopers and to provide and update specified personal information.6 The act requires the Alaska Department of Public Safety to make most of that information available to the public.7 All fifty states and the District of Columbia have some form of sex offender registration act.8 These statutes are commonly known as "Megan's Laws" after Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old New Jersey girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered in 1994 by a neighbor who had two prior convictions for sex offenses against children.9

ASORA requires each registrant to provide extensive personal information: name, address, and place of employment; the crime triggering the duty to register and the date and place of the conviction; all aliases used; a description of any personal identifying features; driver's license number; a description and the license plate number and vehicle identification number of any vehicles the registrant drives or has access to; anticipated address changes; and information about any psychological treatment received.10 Registrants must also allow themselves to be photographed and fingerprinted.11 Registrants must update their information if it changes.12 A registrant's fingerprints, driver's license number, anticipated address changes, and psychological treatment history are kept confidential.13 The remaining information is made available to the general public through a central registry maintained by the Alaska Department of Public Safety and posted on the Internet.14

The Department of Public Safety promulgated a regulation in 1995 defining "conviction" for purposes of ASORA to include findings of guilt by a court "whether or not the judgment was thereafter set aside under AS 12.55.085." 15 In 1999 the legislature amended ASORA's statutory definition of "convietion" to include judgments that had been set aside under AS 12.55.085.16 The state argues that ASORA applies to Doe. We assume, per the state's assertion, that it does.

Doe did not initially register when ASORA was enacted in 1994. He registered under protest in November 1997 after a letter from the state told him that ASORA required him to register and warned him of the eriminal *402consequences for failing to register.17 A week after he registered, Doe filed for in-junctive and declaratory relief, alleging that enforcing the registration - requirement against him violated his constitutional rights and that the Department of Public Safety did not have the authority to promulgate the regulation defining "conviction" to include convictions that were set aside.18

Superior Court Judge Richard D. Savell granted Doe a temporary restraining order that precluded the Department of Public Safety from publicizing his registration information; the court also allowed Doe to prosecute his lawsuit under a pseudonym. The superior court ultimately granted summary judgment to Doe, ruling that the department had overstepped the seope of its authority in defining "conviction" to include convictions that had been set aside. The superior court held that the legislature did not clearly indicate its intention to include "set-asides" in ASORA's registration requirement, and that the department's inclusion of set-asides therefore exceeded the department's authority to promulgate regulations effectuating ASORA's purpose.

The Department of Public Safety appealed these rulings to this court. We ordered the appeal stayed while the Alaska Court of Appeals considered in another case whether the department had authority to adopt 18 AAC 09.900(a2)(2). The court of appeals ultimately concluded in that case, State v. Otnmess, that the regulation was valid because it was "consistent with the legislative purpose to protect the public." 19

Given the court of appeals's decision in Otmess, we remanded the department's appeal in Doe's case to the superior court for reconsideration. Judge Savell ultimately vacated his earlier judgment, denied summary judgment to Doe, and granted summary judgment to the department. The superior court based its decision on Ofness and Patterson v. State.20 In Patterson, the court of appeals considered and rejected a sex offender's challenge to ASORA's constitutionality, holding that ASORA did not violate state or federal constitutional ex post facto, double jeopardy, due process, or equal protection provisions, or Alaska's constitutional guarantee of the right to privacy.21 Applying Patterson, the superior court in Doe's case rejected all of Doe's constitutional claims and upheld ASORA as applied to Doe.

Doe appeals.

IH. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

We review de novo questions of law, including issues of statutory interpretation.22 We apply our independent judgment in deciding whether a statute violates the Alaska Constitution.23

B. Decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Rejecting Federal Challenges to the Alaska and Connecticut Sex Offender Registration Acts Do Not Resolve the Issue Presented Here.

Before discussing Doe's state constitutional arguments, we address the effect of two recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court rejecting federal constitutional challenges to the sex offender registration *403statutes of Alaska and Connecticut.24 Doe's case differs from the Supreme Court's cases in an important respect: the superior court granted Doe an SIS and set aside his convietion before ASORA became effective. Those cases did not require the Supreme Court to decide the question before us: whether applying ASORA to Doe would violate his due process rights given that he satisfied the conditions of the SIS and the trial court set aside his conviction before ASORA became specifically applicable to convictions that were set aside.

Smith v. Doe resolved a federal constitutional challenge to the Alaska Sex Offender Registration Act.25 The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had held that ASORA violated the ex post facto clause of the United States Constitution."26 Holding on certiorari that it did not, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded to the Ninth Circuit for consideration of the registrant's remaining federal constitutional arguments."27 We are not bound here by the Court's decision upholding the Alaska statute, because it decided only that ASORA did not violate the federal ex post facto clause. It did not turn on the state due process concepts that control our analysis in this appeal.

Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe, decided the same day, rejected a federal procedural due process challenge to Connecticut's sex offender registration act.28 The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Cireuit had held that the Federal Constitution's guarantee of procedural due process required Connecticut to provide a convicted sex offender with an individualized hearing on the issue of his dangerousness before requiring him to register.29 The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the federal right of procedural due process did not require an individualized hearing on that issue.30

A recent Ninth Cireuit decision, Doe v. Tandeske, also upheld ASORA against federal due process challenges.31 Tandeske is the Ninth Circuit's decision on remand of Smith v. Doe.32 Relying on Conmecticut Department of Public Safety, the Ninth Cireuit held that ASORA does not deprive convicted sex offenders of the federal right to procedural due process.33 Likewise, the Ninth Cireuit determined that Smith precluded it from concluding that ASORA violates rights to substantive due process under the Federal Constitution.34 - Tandeske, like Smith and Conmecticut Department of Public Safety, did not address the narrow issue presented here. Tandeske concerned two convicted sex offenders who had served sentences of incarceration for their crimes.35 Unlike Doe's situation, it appears that the impositions of their sentences were not suspended and that their convictions had not been set aside before ASORA was enacted and became effective. Thus the case did not decide whether applying ASORA to a person whose convietion has been set aside violates due process.

*404C. ASORA Violates Doe's Due Process Rights Under the Alaska Constitution.

Doe advances various grounds for his contention that ASORA cannot constitutionally be applied to him. He argues that ASORA deprives him of liberty and violates the Alaska Constitution's guarantee of due process. He also argues that applying ASORA to him violates the prohibitions against ex post facto laws and double jeopardy, denies him equal protection, infringes on the doctrine of separation of powers, and interferes with the Alaska Constitution's guarantee of a right to privacy. The state contests each of these claims.

Doe contends in essence that applying ASORA to him violates his fundamental right to be free from significant, new affirmative burdens resulting from his conviction even though a court set aside that conviction before the statute was enacted. Doe's arguments encompass the grounds on which we rule and squarely raise the question of the legitimacy of the government's interference with his fundamental interests in liberty and fair procedural treatment.

State courts are not necessarily bound by the United States Supreme Court's decisions when they consider issues of state constitutional law.36 Only the Supreme Court's decisions on issues of federal law, including issues arising under the Federal Constitution, bind the state courts' consideration of those issues. The Alaska Supreme Court is the final authority on whether an Alaska statute violates the Alaska Constitution."37 Doe's appeal involves Alaska's constitutional guarantee of due process. The Federal Constitution protects the due process rights of all Americans. But federal law does not preclude the Alaska Constitution from providing more rigorous protections for the due process rights of Alaskans.38 When we interpret a provision in the Alaska Constitution, we are not bound by the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of the corresponding provision in the Federal Constitution.39 We may not undermine the minimum protections established by the United States Supreme Court's interpretations of the Federal Constitution. But we have repeatedly explained that

we are free, and we are under a duty, to develop additional constitutional rights and privileges under our Alaska Constitution if we find such fundamental rights and privileges to be within the intention and spirit of our local constitutional language and to be necessary for the kind of civilized life and ordered liberty which is at the core of our constitutional heritage."[40]

*405The Supreme Court's two recent decisions dealing with state registration statutes exclusively concerned federal constitutional challenges.

We have often recognized the importance of personal liberty under our constitution. "[Alt the core of this concept is the notion of total personal immunity from governmental control." 41 The right is not absolute; its limits depend on a balance of interests that varies with the importance of the right infringed.42 When the state encroaches on fundamental aspects of the right to liberty, it must demonstrate a compelling government interest and the absence of a less restrictive means to advance that interest.43

1. The meaning and effect of setting aside a conviction

Doe argues that because the superior court set aside his conviction before ASORA was enacted, the state cannot now foree him to register and divulge new, private information. To evaluate his argument and the importance of the liberty interest at stake, we must consider the meaning and effect of setting aside a conviction.

When Doe was convicted, the superior court suspended the imposition of his sentence, subject to several conditions. Doe met those conditions. After Doe's probationary period expired without imposition of sentence, the superior court, with the state's consent, entered a judgment setting aside his conviction.

Alaska Statute 12.55.085 governs the suspended imposition of sentences and conviction set-asides.44 It grants a trial judge discretion to suspend, in the interest of justice, the imposition of a sentence and place the defendant on probation45 If the defendant satisfies the terms and conditions of the probation without incident, "the court may set aside the conviction and issue to the person a certificate to that effect." 46 Such measures are typically reserved for low-risk, first-time offenders,47 a description the superior court found fit Doe when it suspended imposition of his sentence.48

*406A conviction that has been set aside is not a "conviction" in situations in which a sentence is increased or a crime is defined by a prior conviction.49 A conviction that was set aside is not a "prior conviction" within the meaning of AS 12.55.125 and .145 (f sufficient time has elapsed), which describe the proper use of prior convictions in sentence ing.50 Moreover, a person with a conviction that was set aside has an affirmative defense in some repeat offender situations. For example, AS 11.61.200 (misconduct involving weapons in the third degree) punishes a person "who knowingly possesses a firearm capable of being concealed on one's person after having been convicted of a felony," but provides an affirmative defense to prosecution if "the underlying conviction upon which the action is based has been set aside under AS 12.55.085." 51 A conviction that was set aside may not be used to impeach a witness for having been convicted of a crime under Alaska Rule of Evidence 609(d)(2).52

In State v. Mekiana we discussed the purpose of suspending imposition of sentence and setting aside a conviction:

Ordinarily, when a judge opts to order a suspended sentence the judge has evaluated the defendant's background and offense and decided the defendant deserves a chanee to show that he or she has "reformed" and therefore should be rewarded with a clean record. One of the purposes of the set-aside statute is to provide defendants with an incentive to meet the conditions of their probation.[53]

The Alaska Court of Appeals has also considered the meaning of a set-aside under AS 12.55.085. In Wickham v. State it said that a set-aside order "reflect[s] a substantial showing of rehabilitation." 54 The court of appeals wrote there that "it seems virtually inconceivable that a set-aside would ever be justified in the face of substantial evidence establishing that an offender had not actually been reformed.55 55 It concluded that a conviction that has been set aside cannot be used to impeach a witness at trial."56 In his dissent in State v. Otness, Chief Judge Coats observed that after defendants completed conditions of suspended imposition of sentence, "they could reasonably conclude that their criminal conviction was part of their past, and that, if they continued to be law abiding citizens, they had a good chance of not suffering any disabilities because of this prior prosecution." 57

But as the state observes, other decisions of this court indicate that the meaning of "set aside" is not as clear as Doe claims. We have recognized that "while the collateral consequences of a set aside conviction should be limited, records of a set aside conviction can be used in certain cireumstances." 58 For example, prior convictions that were set aside may be treated as aggravating factors when sentence is imposed for a subsequent crime; AS 12.55.155(c)(8) and (c)(21) allow a *407sentencing judge to consider a defendant's prior criminal history.59

Further, we have held that setting aside a conviction does not expunge the conviction from an offender's criminal record."60 Both the conviction and the judgment setting it aside consequently remain in the public ree-ord. Members of the public, such as potential employers inquiring into a job applicant's criminal record, can learn of the existence of a conviction that has been set aside.61 They can do this by researching court records or by requiring a person applying for employment or housing to divulge the fact of a prior conviction even if it has been set aside.

An offender's public record normally does not include information about events or circumstances post-dating the order granting the set-aside. The public record will normally include at least some description of the conduct that resulted in the conviction and the circumstances that justified the set-aside.62 In our experience, the public record of an offender who receives a set-aside contains little of the information that ASORA makes public.63

A conviction that was set aside therefore has some lingering consequences. But these consequences are relatively limited, and are foreseeable to a set-aside candidate. They follow naturally from the original conviction and are not inconsistent with the findings that justify a set-aside or with the set-aside order itself.

Moreover, the offender has some ability to limit public interest in the information because it is often the offender's post-set-side elective conduct (e.g., applying for a job) that potentially requires him or her to disclose adverse information already in the public record. The defendant can limit the risk he will have to disclose this information by limiting his application choices or withdrawing applications when asked to disclose.

As we will see, the effects and consequences of ASORA are much different.

2. Liberty and procedural interests arising from the findings and Doe's set-aside

Suspending the imposition of sentence requires that there be "cireumstances in mitigation of the punishment, or that the ends of justice will be served." 64 An order setting aside a conviction reflects a substantial showing of rehabilitation.65 The superior court twice carefully considered Doe's circumstances, in 1989 and 1991, when it suspended imposition of sentence. It determined that Doe's offense was not serious and that he did not pose a risk to the community. When the superior court set aside Doe's conviction in 1994, it issued him a certificate that stated that "the defendant is discharged by the court without imposition of sentence" and that "[JJudgment of conviction is hereby set aside." The set-aside thus rewarded Doe for satisfying the obligations imposed on him by the superior court, based on the confirmation that he did not pose a threat of reoffending.

*408As Doe's opening brief cogently argues, a set-aside recipient "has already had to demonstrate that he does not fall in [the] category of high risk for a reoffense":

The core legislative finding underlying enactment of the original Registration Act itself is that "sex offenders pose a high risk of reoffending after release from custody," section 1, ch. 41, SLA 1994. For individuals with set-asides, the court has already made a two-step longitudinal assessment of the likelihood of a reoffense. The court in making the initial determination to suspend imposition of sentence "has evaluated the individual's background and offense and decided the defendant deserves a chance to show that he or she has 'reformed' and therefore should be rewarded with a clean record." The offender, following a jail term if the court chooses to require it, is then put on probation for an extended period (in John Doe's case, nearly five years) to give the authorities ample opportunity to monitor his "risk of reof-fending following release from custody." The court thus has had the chance to check the accuracy of its earlier prediction; if there has been a violation of the conditions of probation, then the conviction will not be set aside. Thus, any individual who has been given a set-aside has already had to demonstrate that he does not fall into that category of high risk for a reoffense.

(Footnotes omitted.)

Doe's set-aside was consequently founded on judicial findings that he presented no significant risk to the community. These findings, with respect to his 1987 conduct and his conviction, were final and unchallenged. With respect to his responsibilities flowing from his conviction, they preclude subsequent reconsideration whether he posed a significant risk of committing the same offense again.

Further, the findings resulted in the superior court's entry of the set-aside order. This was a final and unappealed judicial act.

Doe's opportunity to have his conviction set aside if he satisfied the conditions the superior court imposed was a crucial element of the order suspending the imposition of his sentence. After he satisfied the conditions,66 confirming the court's prior findings that he was unlikely to reoffend, the set-aside created a settled expectation that the state would not subsequently use the conviction that was set aside as a basis for imposing brand-new affirmative burdens on him. The now-confirmed findings and set-aside conferred on Doe a fundamental right to be let alone with respect to the conviction that was being set aside.67

After the court set aside his conviction, Doe no longer had the status of a convicted person."68 There may be unresolved questions about the full effect of setting aside a conviction. But, at a minimum, the status of a person whose conviction has been set aside differs greatly from that of a person whose conviction has not been set aside, because the set-aside recipient has now been placed in the category of persons expressly or implicitly found to pose little threat of committing new crimes.

The SIS findings and 1994 set-aside clearly give rise to interests in liberty and fair procedural treatment that merit constitutional protection.

8. ASORA's effect on Doe's liberty and procedural interests

Even though the lives of set-aside recipients may be subject to adverse, and even significant, consequences arising from the fact of their former convictions, these consequences are not inconsistent with their settled expectations and do not obviously affect their liberty interests.

*409In comparison, ASORA very significantly and directly affects the lives of set-aside recipients. The ways and extent it does so differ greatly from the lingering consequences a conviction that was set aside may continue to have. The effects of ASORA arise from four features of the statute. First, it imposes on offenders an affirmative duty to register with law enforcement agen-cles.69 Second, it requires offenders to disclose extensive personal information, much of which the government would not otherwise have, and much of which is not public.70 Third, it requires offenders to keep their information current for at least fifteen years or the rest of their lives, depending on the offense."71 This period often exceeds both the sentences actually received by some classes of offender, and the duration of any noncustodial supervision. Fourth, it requires the state to maintain a public registry of most of the disclosed information.72

These features derive from the assumption that persons convicted of sex offenses pose a significant danger of committing new sex offenses."73 This general assumption is fundamentally inconsistent with the individualized findings of fact a court makes before setting aside a particular offender's conviction. These findings are a judicial determination that the particular offender does not pose significant danger of reoffending. This determination as to a particular offender is inconsistent with treating him as if he belongs to a class that poses a danger of committing new sex offenses.

Therefore, applying ASORA to an offender whose conviction has been set aside inherently conflicts with the judicial proceedings that resulted in the set-aside. Applying ASORA to the set-aside recipient therefore also defeats the offender's settled expectations that legitimately arise from the findings and the set-aside adjudication. Moreover, applying ASORA to Doe also defeats his settled expectations because his conviction was set aside even before ASORA was enacted or became effective.

Imposing ASORA's affirmative duties on Doe effectively reclassifies his status from that of a person who received a judgment setting aside his conviction to that of a convicted offender whose conviction still stands. Offenders who are granted a set-aside order have been placed in the category of people who have been individually found by courts not to pose a danger to society. ASORA indiscriminately groups those people with persons who are presumed to pose a future danger. This general finding of dangerousness is inconsistent with the particularized case-by-case judicial findings made when individual defendants are granted SIS, before their convictions are ultimately set aside.

The burdens imposed by ASORA differ dramatically from those lingering consequences that survive a set-aside. ASORA imposes mandatory duties even if the defendant does not engage in new elective conduct. It imposes these duties because the defendant is physically present in the state, not because he has applied for employment, housing, or some government benefit. These burdens include affirmative duties to do things (register, disclose, and update information), not merely refrain from doing things (committing no new crimes). The duties are significant and intrusive, because they compel offenders to contact law enforcement agencies and register even if they have committed no new offense, and to disclose private information, much of it for public dissemination. They are also intrusive in their duration. Failure to comply exposes the offender to criminal sanctions.74 ASORA thus treats offenders not much differently than the state treats probationers and parolees subject to continued state supervision. In short, it treats them as though they did not satisfy their SIS conditions, as though courts did not *410expressly or implicitly find that they were not dangerous, as though their convictions were not set aside, and as though they had not been ordered discharged after their convictions were set aside.

There is also a significant difference between a public record that continues to memorialize a conviction after it is set aside and a state-sponsored Internet site that displays the information ASORA requires. The difference is not merely that the state has improved access to public information it had a legitimate right to gather at the time a defendant was convicted. The difference instead lies in the extent and nature of information to be divulged and the offender's duty to keep it updated. To advance ASORA's purposes effectively, the registry must include enough information to enable the public to reduce the danger registrants are assumed to pose. ASORA therefore requires a sex offender to disclose and update extensive personal information. Much of this information was not otherwise available to the public or the state when the conviction was set aside and much would not otherwise be presently available to either the public or the state. Most of the information about Doe that was to have been published in the ASO-RA registry was not in the public record when Doe was convicted or when the court set aside his conviction and ordered him discharged.

Because ASORA compels affirmative post-discharge conduct under threat of prosecution, because this conduct is equivalent to that often required by criminal judgments, because this sort of conduct could not be compelled absent a criminal adjudication or its equivalent, because the conviction (since set aside) is the event that triggers these duties, and because the requirement impairs one's post-set-aside freedom to be let alone, we conclude that it violates Doe's liberty interests 75 to require him to register under ASORA after the court found that Doe had satisfied the requirements of his SIS and was entitled to a set-aside, and then set aside his conviction, all before ASORA was enacted.

We also conclude that the potentially destructive practical consequences that flow from registration and widespread governmental distribution of disclosed information establish the gravity of this violation. Several sex offenders on the registry filed affidavits in support of Doe in this litigation stating that they had lost their jobs, been forced to move their residences, and received threats of violence since the establishment of the registry, even though their convictions had always been a matter of public record. Outside Alaska, there have been incidents of suicide by, and vigilantism against, offenders on state registries,76 and offenders listed on registries often bave unique difficulties locating places to reside and work. Offenders are sometimes subjected to protests and group actions designed to foree them out of their jobs and homes.77 Courts have also noted *411these serious adverse consequences.78

In short, we hold that applying ASORA to Doe burdens his fundamental liberty interests and right to procedural fairness arising out of the set-aside granted him in 1994, such that the state must establish a compelling governmental interest.

4. Whether the state's interest in applying the statute to pre-ASORA set-aside recipients is compelling

Having determined that application of ASORA burdens Doe's fundamental liberty and procedural interests, we must decide whether the state has demonstrated a compelling governmental interest in restricting those interests.79 We are mindful that before a person's conviction for a sex offense can be set aside, he or she necessarily must have been convicted of that offense. When the legislature enacted ASORA, it found that "sex offenders pose a high risk of reoffending after release from custody.805°

Because a lawfully entered set-aside order marks the termination of a formal judicial proceeding between the state and the defendant, it operates as a final judgment: it establishes the parties' mutual rights and obligations, and it binds both parties to its terms. Although a set-aside order does not erase the reality of the former conviction, or entitle the defendant to proclaim his innocence,81 it does bar the state from using the conviction or the underlying misconduct as grounds for compelling the defendant to act as though he remains convicted, has never been rehabilitated, and continues to pose a public danger.82

Once final, then, a set-aside order operates as a binding, case-specific determination that the charges underlying the conviction that was set aside no longer support an inference of public danger. A defendant who earns and receives a final set-aside order can reasonably expect that this determination will be honored by the state and given effect. A defendant who has satisfied his SIS conditions and whose conviction was set aside by a final order entered before ASORA became specifically applicable to convictions that have been set aside has an enforceable procedural right in the set-aside order's meaning and terms. The state therefore may not alter or ignore them without heeding the requirements of procedural fairness traditionally imposed on a party constrained by a judgment: prior notice, an opportunity to cross-examine and defend, and a case-specific showing 'of compelling cireumstances warranting relief from the judgment.83

*412There is no legitimate reason to think that Doe presents such a danger that the state's post-set-aside interference with his liberty interests is justified. Absent the likelihood Doe will commit new sex offenses, there is no compelling government interest in requiring Doe to do the things ASORA demands. Given ASORA's burden on Doe's liberty interests and its interference with his settled expectations, we conclude that the Alaska Constitution's guarantee of due process prevents the state from contradicting the judgment of the superior court and requiring Doe to satisfy ASORA.

Because we decide that applying ASORA to Doe violates his due process rights, we do not reach Doe's other arguments.84

IV. CONCLUSION

Because applying ASORA to a person whose conviction was set aside under AS 12.55.085 before ASORA became specifically applicable to convictions that were set aside unconstitutionally interferes with the individual's liberty interests and because the state has failed to establish that this application is justified by a compelling governmental interest, we REVERSE the judgment that upheld ASORA as applied to Doe and REMAND for entry of an order enjoining the state from publishing Doe's registration information and requiring the state to return all information Doe provided when he registered under protest.

MATTHEWS, Justice, concurring.

concurring.

My primary reasons for reversing the decision of the superior court can be summarized as follows. The SIS program offers a promise to participating defendants that in most respects they will not be treated as convicted criminals. Defendants can accept this offer by complying with the conditions imposed by the program. When so accepted, the program ereates a legally protected interest. The ASORA registration requirement treats those who have had their convictions set aside under the program as convicted criminals, and does so in a particularly invasive and socially and economically disabling way. It thus substantially breaches the bargain implicit in the SIS program. This is fundamentally unfair and violates the state constitutional guarantee of due process. The opinion of the court encompasses this rationale and I join in it.

It seems useful to discuss briefly the issue of the time parameters of the cases to which this rationale applies. Clearly it does not apply to judgments suspending the imposition of sentences entered after ASORA was explicitly made applicable to convictions set aside under the SIS program.1 The defendants in this category have notice when they begin to participate in the program that they will not be exempt from registration. There is thus no breach of a state promise and no special element of unfairness. Just as clearly, cases in which set-asides occurred before ASORA was explicitly made applicable to SIS cases should be held to be exempt from registration. In such cases defendants gave full performance in reliance on the state's promise, and a set-aside was entered. I *413believe that this rationale also should apply to cases where defendants have fully or substantially performed the conditions imposed on them by the program before ASORA was made applicable to SIS cases, even if the set-aside order was entered after that time. The important thing in such cases is that the defendants have acted with the justified expectation that in most respects they will be treated as though they were never convicted. It would be as unfair to apply ASORA to them as to defendants whose convictions were set aside before ASORA was made applicable to SIS cases. A similar rationale might apply where a guilty or nolo plea was entered as a plea bargain contemplating the use of the SIS program. If such a plea were entered before ASORA applied to SIS cases, the detrimental reliance inherent in the plea could be sufficient to support an exemption from registration even if much of the probation were served after ASORA applied. Many of the views expressed in this paragraph are not encompassed in the opinion of the court. I discuss them only because they may be of some use in defining and deciding issues that will arise as to how to apply the precedent that is established today.