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Why Comstock Matters

By Corey Rayburnyung

While the facts in Comstock are about at least one very bad person who will be diverted to a civil commitment facility, the importance of the case extends well beyond the fate of Graydon Earl Comstock, Jr. Among the constituencies and issues that might be affected, there are at least five potentially important results that could come out of the SCOTUS opinion.First, as the first post-Raich case that might concern Commerce Clause doctrine, Comstock is obviously notable. If the Court retreats from the jurisprudence led by Justice Rehnquist in Lopez and Morrison, then it is quite likely the Commerce Clause will revert to being a meaningless bar to federal jurisdiction. In the alternative, the Court might continue its ideological pattern with Commerce Clause cases wherein liberal statutes (gun control and the Violence Against Women Act) get struck down while more conservative laws (drug laws and sex offender civil commitment) are upheld...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Crimes on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).