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SCOTUS hearing challenge to federal sex offender civil commitment statute today

By Douglas A. Berman

This morning, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in US v. Comstock (08-1224), a case in which the Fourth Circuit had found constitutionally problematic the federal sex offender civil commitment statute. There are effective previews of the case worth checking out at SCOTUSblog and Sex Crimes and in links from How Appealing. I look forward to reading the Comstock transcript later today to see if most of the Justices frame this case as one about sex offenders or one about federalism.  I generally think federalism concerns ought to be playing a bigger role in lots of criminal justice contexts, and I am eager to see if any of the current Justices may share that instinct.

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 12, 2010 (boomark / email).