Justices hear case on releasing sex offenders

— Several Supreme Court justices on Tuesday seemed open to the idea of continuing to let the federal government indefinitely hold inmates considered "sexually dangerous" after their federal prison terms are complete.

"You are talking about endangering the health and safety of people, so the government has some responsibility, doesn't it?" said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Lower courts have said the federal government cannot do this. But in arguments before the high court Tuesday, Solicitor General Elena Kagan said the government has a responsibility to ensure that sexual predators are not turned back onto the streets.

The federal government's responsibility and power extends to ensuring "those people who have been in custody are released responsibly," Kagan said.

Kagan compared the government's power to commit sexual predators to its power to quarantine federal inmates whose sentences have expired but have a highly contagious and deadly disease. "Would anybody say that the federal government would not have Article I power to effect that kind of public safety measure? And the exact same thing is true here. This is exactly what Congress is doing here," she said.

Several justices seemed to agree with her. "It seems to me that the constitutional answer is the same in this statute as in the case of somebody who incurs a very communicable disease and the government wants to prevent him from infecting the community," said Justice John Paul Stevens.

Federal public defender G. Alan DuBois (due-BWAH) said this practice would overstep official bounds when it comes to sentencing people for federal crimes. The federal government "doesn't have the power to detain individuals as a result of their mental illness based on the fear that they are going to go out and commit a crime," he said.

Justice Antonin Scalia agreed with him, saying that to allow the federal government to indefinitely hold dangerous people because states won't do it "is a recipe for the federal government taking over everything."






State laws allowing civil commitments of sex offenders also are unaffected.


The Associated Press


