SCOTUS to mull accepting sex offender lawsuit
A case began in December 2011 as a pro se proceeding by patients in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program disputing the conditions including room searches, restrictive telephone and mail policies and bad food, among other things — that’s how the defendant state of Minnesota characterized it, anyway.
When the petitioners got an attorney, it got re-characterized as a matter of substantive due process.
It’s now pending at the United States Supreme Court, where the justices will consider the patients’ petition for certiorari. The briefs are all in now — one from the state, two from petitioners and four from amicus curiae supporting the petitioners. (See sidebar on amicus briefs.)
The constitutional issue presented to the Supreme Court is the standard of review that should apply to substantive due process claims brought by the patients. Strict scrutiny, the highest standard, as employed by Judge Donovan Frank? Or simply a reasonable relation standard, as used by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals? And must one’s conscience be shocked by the actions of the respondents, and if so, at what stage of the review?
As the petitioners’ attorney, Dan Gustafson, sees it, the nub of the problem is that once a person is committed, he or she is labeled dangerous and loses the fundamental right to liberty effectively forever under the state system. The state has failed to enact a procedure to make sure that people are able to be released, Gustafson said.
The state does have a statutory reduction in custody scheme in place, but it shifts the burden of proof to the patient and it has never resulted in a release until this lawsuit was filed. “We’ve demonstrated that it hasn’t worked for the last 25 years,” Gustafson said.
The case is Karsjens, et al. v. Emily Johnson Pipe, et al. Solicitor General Alan Gilbert could not be reached for comment.
More and more bureaucrats are going to have to be called ‘on to the carpet’. It’s nice to think that we have a constitution to defend American citizens but when certain bureaucrats come to believe that they are above the Constitution then citizens have to ban together and put these bureaucrats in their place in a court of law.
What’s so sad today is, It hard to believe that We have a CONSTITUTION to protect ALL CITIZENS OF THE USA, Yet the Government gets to “Pick and Choose” who is protected by Our CONSTITUTION !!!! It’s a slippery STEAP downhill slope when a certain classification of CITIZENS are considered “EXEMPT” from Constitutional PROTECTION !!!! Next thing you know, All Felons will be EXEMPT, Then any Family members will be EXEMPT (Considering that Parents can be put on the Registery because of their CHILDS Sex Crime!!!), Then The “Government” will concoct up more ILLEGAL LAW’S until EVERYONE IS ON A REGISTERY OF SOME KIND, Then “WE THE PEOPLE” will have NO SAY in Government Actions !!!. But of course we will still be required by LAW to Pay Taxes !!. Most people can’t see past the end of their noses !!. They vote on laws that give a FALSE sense of Security, Not realizing that their voting our RIGHTS away !!! Haven’t people realized yet that it’s MUCH MUCH HARDER to get a law Reversed than it is to get it passed !!!. WAKE UP PEOPLE !!. A “REGISTERY” Doesn’t protect ANYONE !!!!!!. If a person wants to do something, Having their name on some list is NOT going to stop them !!!!!!!!. And a robber is 100 times more likely to rob again, A killer is TWICE as likely to kill again, And a Drug Dealer is a MILLION TIMES more likely to sell drugs again, And a Drink Driver is 1000 times more likely to drive Drunk again !!! But NONE OF THEM ARE ON A REGISTERY !!!!!!. Yes Sex Crimes are bad, But isn’t DEATH/MURDER worse ????. Crazy ILLEGAL LAW’S are being applied to the crime with the LOWEST REOFFENSE RATE !!!!!!. WTH ??????
Is this a civil committ case or the treatment program required for all
Offenders?
Civil Commitment
My male neighbor is a convicted child molester. He had sex with a young female child. His name is Dan XXXXX. He is required to register his address every year with the state. I’m afraid to have my young nieces over to hang out in my yard. This guy is totally creepy. His elderly parents own the house and he lives in apartment upstairs. His new wife does not know that he is a child molester. I fear for all the children in the neighborhood. I don’t know what to do.
If you think his new wife doesn’t know about his status, Then you must of just crawled out from under a huge rock after a 10+ year sleep !! No insult intended, But REALLY ??? . It’s almost IMPOSSIBLE for a ExOffender to live anywhere without neighbors knowing about a RSO !!. Also, To reply to your rear of letting your families Children play in your yard, Incase you also haven’t been following Sex Offender Studies. Registered Sex Offenders DONT REOFFEND !! Atleast not compared to every/any other kind of Criminal!!). If you want the HONEST TRUTH, Your kids are SAFER AROUND MOST RSO’s !! Safer than being around someone that you don’t know anything about !!!. A RSO knows what will happen to them if they ReOffend !!. And almost every RSO will NEVER ReOffend !!!. It’s sad that the general public hates all RSO’s, But everyone on the Registery is not Committing the Crimes !! It’s people that Are NOT on the Registery yet !! This just PROVES that the Registery and ALL it’s Stupid Laws/Requirements are a WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME !!.
Well said,being a rso I wish more people felt that way.I know children in my neiborhood are safer with me living there than someone who hasn’t been caught yet ! No expert,just my opinion.
Why not talk to him and get to know him? perhaps learn the circumstances and facts?
how do you know his wife is not aware of his past?
and to be honest your post makes you look like a troll but i may be incorrect; thus if you are truly concerned about your neighbor talk to him. by the way, your niece’s is over 90% more likely to be sexually abused by a family member, close friend, teacher, cop, etc.. than by a stranger and that is a factual statistic!
my question to you is. When was his charge? have u done ur research? This is why the registry is so un effective. there is no facts. someone cut of from the world. no rights. most cant be around there own family due to contact with minor issues. yet you have already condemened your neighboor. The facts show that the chance of your neighbor committing another crime is very low and the chance of your nieces finding harm is more likely from the people already in your house hold. But we can act like the politicians and kick him from his stable home. Put him in the tent in the woods where he has no supervision and give him no reason to live. That sounds so american. When did america become the land of no second chance .
Try treating him like a human. You might find out that he is not at all as you have ‘painted’ him in your mind. By the way, how do you know what his wife knows?
Think of this A. Spencer if you would please: Imagine your floriduh, pant-pissing, heroic legislators pass a law tomorrow making it a 3rd degree felony to invite young relatives to your home if a sex offender lives nearby. If you do so, they post your photo on the internet and warn all your neighbors that you willingly expose your young relatives to a known sex-offender. They then apply it to you retroactively though your young relatives were born before the law was passed, and in spite of the fact that you purchased your home prior to the law’s enactment; they send in law enforcement and mandate you report in person to the sheriff’s office within 48 hours any time you will have young relatives over for a visit. You must report any changes in vehicle or vessel registration for fear your car or boat may be used by said neighbor to kidnap unsuspecting children. You must provide all new internet identifiers in person at sheriff’s office within 48 hours in case your neighbor hacks your computer for nefarious purpose. Failure to do anything they mandate at any future time is punishable by 2nd or 3rd degree felony. Remember, they are not punishing you; they are protecting society’s most vulnerable.
What is “creepy?” Respectfully, I pray you don’t fall victim to the next set of laws passed by a body of hypocritical cowards, then enhanced by the semantics of pandering prosecutors such as “collateral” and “non-punitive.” DUI convictions perhaps? Those are far more common and result in a much higher recidivist rate.
The fact that you pre-judge/ostracize your neighbor due to his publicity is proof that “The scarlet letter” is punishment indeed.
You said “I don’t know what to do.” I suggest you write your pandering heroic lawmakers and mandate they follow the Constitutions they swore to protect before they pass something that negatively impacts you or a loved one. God bless you and yours.
Spencer, or can i call you worrier? The fact that one killed does not make one a killer. killer imply that one keep on killing. in the business of sex offending, sex offender is a misnomer for 95% of sex offenders do not sex offend. This is a crime so hated by the population that those that commit it only do it once.
A. Spencer – I am with the posters here that think there is a little “trolling” involved in your post. All of the things people have said already are 100% true (concerning statistics etc) – Also, you say he is required to register every year – if this is in FL that is not correct – it would be more than just annually. You seem to “know” an awful lot about him, his personal life, and his crime but do you “really” know or are you going by rumors etc.? What should you do? Live and let live. Has this person EVER done anything to make you feel they are causing imminent danger to you or yours? Would you feel better if perhaps he had been convicted of murder, home invasion, or DUI? Oh, but you wouldn’t know that about him if it were true now would you?
Well said. It’s amazing how much these people who ‘know nothing’ know!