Fourth Circuit finds federal sex offender civil commitment law unconstitutional

As reported here at How Appealing, “a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [Thursday] declared unconstitutional … a federal statute intended to allow the federal government to place in indefinite civil commitment ‘sexually dangerous’ persons who have completed serving their federal prison sentences.”   Here is a snippet from the start of US v. Comstock, No. 07-7671 (4th Cir. Jan. 8, 2009) (available here):

After carefully considering the Government’s arguments, we conclude, for the reasons set forth below, that § 4248 does indeed lie beyond the scope of Congress’s authority.  The Constitution does not empower the federal government to confine a person solely because of asserted “sexual dangerousness” when the Government need not allege (let alone prove) that this “dangerousness” violates any federal law. 

Eugene Volokh and Ilya Somin and Corey Yung all have extended and very thoughtful comments on the Comstock ruling.  I share their collective instinct that this could end up before the Supreme Court.