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[DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-11353 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ LOUIS MATTHEW CLEMENTS, Petitioner-Appellant, versus SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,

Respondent-Appellee.

____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 2:24-cv-00294-JES-NPM ____________________ USCA11 Case: 24-11353 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 07/09/2025 Page: 2 of 7

Before ROSENBAUM, NEWSOM, and KIDD, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: Louis Clements appeals the dismissal of his second 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition filed in April 2024. The district court con- cluded that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the petition because Clements was not “in custody” within the meaning of § 2254(a). After careful review, we vacate the district court’s order dismissing Clements’s petition and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND In 2008, Clements pleaded guilty to a single count of lewd and lascivious conduct, in violation of Fla. Stat. § 800.04(6). He was sentenced to five years of sex-offender probation, the terms of which “provided that he qualified and shall register with the Flor- ida Department of Law Enforcement as a sexual offender pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 943.0435.”

In 2017, roughly four years after the expiration of his proba- tionary term, Clements, proceeding pro se, filed his first § 2254 pe- tition in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, challenging his conviction on various grounds. The district court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction, concluding that Clements’s obligations to comply with Florida’s registration and reporting requirements for sex offenders did not place him “in cus- tody” for habeas purposes. On appeal, we affirmed, holding, “ad- mittedly with some hesitation,” that “[t]he restrictions on freedom USCA11 Case: 24-11353 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 07/09/2025 Page: 3 of 7

24-11353 Opinion of the Court 3 of movement” imposed by Florida’s lifetime registration and re- porting requirements were “not severe enough” to place sex of- fenders “in custody” under § 2254(a)). Clements v. Florida (Clements I), 59 F.4th 1204, 1215–17 (11th Cir.), cert. denied., 144 S. Ct. 488 (2023).

For the first time on appeal, Clements also argued in his pro se brief that the residency restrictions Florida imposes on sex of- fenders contributed to his being “in custody.” Id. at 1208. We de- clined to consider the impact of these restrictions, however, be- cause Clements had not raised the argument before the district court and the record was underdeveloped as to that issue. Id. at 1208–09. We further noted that we could not take judicial notice of how much land was covered by these residency restrictions “[w]ithout access to appropriate and detailed maps and plats—at a minimum.” Id. at 1209. We explained that without knowing where Florida’s schools, daycares, parks, and playgrounds were located, we could not “sketch out the residency buffer zones as experts might do,” and Clements did not provide “the specifics neces- sary. . . to evaluate the” impact of those restrictions on appeal. Id. at 1209 & n.1. We thus expressly reserved consideration of that is- sue “for another day.” Id. at 1208, 1215.

In April 2024, Clements filed his second pro se § 2254 petition, again challenging the constitutionality of his § 800.04(6) conviction.

This petition provides the basis for the instant appeal. Clements’s petition included an “Explanation Regarding Lack of Custody,” which acknowledged the question left open by Clements I and USCA11 Case: 24-11353 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 07/09/2025 Page: 4 of 7

The district court, acting on its own accord, dismissed Clem- ents’s petition for lack of jurisdiction. The court stated that Clem- ents had failed to “address[] his custody status” or “assert[] that it ha[d] changed,” so it was bound by Clements I’s determination that he was not “in custody.” It noted the fact “[t]hat Clements now believe[d] he ha[d] a new basis” to bring a § 2254 petition “d[id] not alter the fact that th[e] [c]ourt [wa]s without jurisdiction to con- sider it.”

Clements then moved for reconsideration and argued, among other things, that Clements I did not address the impact of the residency restrictions on his custody status. The district court denied Clements’s motion. First, it stated that it would not ignore this Court’s binding decision in Clements I just because Clements had identified an “alternate reason” for why he was in custody. Sec- ond, the court found that Clements’s motion merely restated the arguments in his petition, which was insufficient to carry his bur- den for reconsideration. This appeal followed. 1

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24-11353 Opinion of the Court 5 II. STANDARD OF REVIEW We review de novo a district court’s dismissal of a § 2254 pe- tition for lack of jurisdiction. Diaz v. Fla. Fourth Jud. Cir., 683 F.3d 1261, 1263 (11th Cir. 2012).

III. DISCUSSION Federal courts may hear petitions for habeas relief filed by a person “in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court only on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). Ac- cordingly, federal courts lack jurisdiction to consider a § 2254 peti- tion from a petitioner who was not “in custody” at the time of fil- ing. Maleng v. Cook, 490 U.S. 488, 490–91 (1989).

Section 2254(a)’s “in custody” requirement is construed “very liberally.” Howard v. Warden, 776 F.3d 772, 775 (11th Cir. 2015) (quotation marks omitted). An individual need not be physi- cally imprisoned to be “in custody” for habeas purposes. Jones v. Cunningham, 371 U.S. 236, 239–40 (1963). Instead, significant re- straints on a person’s “liberty to do those things which in this coun- try free men are entitled to do,” when those restraints are not shared by the public generally, can be sufficient to satisfy the “in custody” requirement. Id. at 242–43. The relevant inquiry is whether a petitioner’s actions and movements are substantially limited when looking at the cumulative effect of the restrictions on the petitioner’s autonomy. See Clements I, 59 F.4th at 1214, 1217.

Here, contrary to the district court’s belief, Clements I is not binding as to whether Clements is “in custody” for the purposes of USCA11 Case: 24-11353 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 07/09/2025 Page: 6 of 7

We must now consider whether, despite the district court’s error, the record on appeal is sufficiently developed for our Court to resolve Clements’s new “in custody” arguments. Clements took the first step to getting this issue before our Court by arguing in his pro se filings before the district court that Florida’s sex-offender res- idency requirements, along with its registration and reporting re- quirements, sufficiently restrict his liberty so as to render him “in custody.” Now counseled on appeal, Clements maintains this ar- gument but attempts to supplement his contentions by providing maps as well as citing studies and academic articles in his brief.

However, much of this information is not a part of the record on appeal because it was not first presented to the district court. See Fed. R. App. P. 10(a).

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24-11353 Opinion of the Court 7 “We ordinarily do not review materials outside the record on appeal,” Welding Servs., Inc. v. Forman, 509 F.3d 1351, 1357 (11th Cir. 2007), and “[a]s an appellate court, we do not sit as a col- lective trier of fact,” Clements I, 59 F.4th at 1209. We therefore de- cline to consider Clements’s evidence regarding Florida’s residency restrictions in the first instance and conclude that the record is un- derdeveloped at this stage for meaningful review of the issues Clements presents on appeal.

We remand this case to the district court to permit the par- ties the opportunity to develop the record as to the restrictions im- posed by Florida’s sex-offender residency requirements. The dis- trict court shall then rule on whether these residency restrictions, considered in combination with the registration and reporting re- quirements, render Clements “in custody” for habeas purposes.

IV. CONCLUSION For the reasons stated above, we VACATE the district court’s order dismissing Clements’s § 2254 petition and REMAND for the court to evaluate whether Florida’s residency requirements, in conjunction with the registration and reporting requirements, may render Clements “in custody” under § 2254(a).