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"First, They Came for the Sex Offenders"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the heading of this interesting new commentary at Cato's @ Liberty blog by David Rittgers. Here is how it starts: First, they came for the sex offenders.  I am not a sex offender, but I opposed the civil commitment of sex offenders by the federal government because it is not an activity within the enumerated powers of Congress.  The Supreme Court decided otherwise in Comstock, with the exception of Justices Thomas and Scalia. Next, they will come for suspected terrorists.  As Dahlia Lithwick (who I rarely agree with...) points out, the Supreme Court?s decision in Comstock may have some frightening implications for domestic preventive detention of terrorism suspects in lieu of criminal prosecution. I saw this firsthand last summer when I attended a scholars meeting with the Obama administration?s Detention Policy Task Force (the same one that Andy McCarthy publicly refused to attend)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).