The Supreme Court ruled Monday the federal government has the power to indefinitely keep some sex offenders behind bars after they have served their sentences, if officials determine those inmates may prove "sexually dangerous" in the future.
"The federal government, as custodian of its prisoners, has the constitutional power to act in order to protect nearby (and other) communities from the danger such prisoners may pose," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the 7-2 majority.
Monday's other Supreme Court rulings:
Court: Sentencing juveniles to life without parole 'cruel and unusual'
High court rules for father in international child custody case
Two different Brian's and almost the same comment!
Those of you who are cheering this decision are very short sighted. This is not the fix to what is a genuine problem, it is simply the opening of pandoras box. Looking beyond the specifics of this small subset of society it is setting a horrible precedent. There is a reason we have a court system that determines prison sentences. To allow the federal government to disregard that is terrifying. And as we said earlier, who's next? Shame on the Supreme Court for taking the cowards was out.
I sympathize with those who are violated by felons (regardless of their crime) upon their release. However, that just means their initial sentencing and rehabilitation in prison were failures; it does not mean that they should be held indefinitely. It is rather arbitrary how they are going to decide who to hold indefinitely and who not to.
Bristoll and Esq. Singh summed this decision up best. This is a dreadful decision, one that attacks the very sense of our democracy.
Prison doesn't rehabilitate
Simple solution... Life NO Parole. Done
Right, and who is going to pay for that? Get a clue.
WHO IS NEXT?
Goodbye America, you had a nice run of it.
If we want them to stay longer than their sentence why is the sentence that short in the first place?
Exactly my thinking. Change the sentencing to reflect the recidivism rather than set the precedent of jailing people based on potential risk. Hell, every one of us POTENTIALLY is a murderer or a thief.
Wow. I don't know how I feel about that....
This should be a temporary solution until the laws are changed to reflect tougher sentences.
This should also apply to murderers and auto thieves.
Only a small number of these people get locked up at all because of all
these rights and those rights. Start locking up for life people SUSPECTED of these
crimes and then we will be rid of pedophiles and have justice.
God bless the United States of America.
I suspect that you ARE the pedophile. Let me lock you up.
Dear Mr. Roberts ; Thank you for your sociological
and anthropological brilliance. I suspect the Richard under you
may be the pedophile.
James Forsyth , fellow Oxford University
good old Amerikan Fascism at work
Seriously? I know a lot of these people represent the lowest and sickest members of our society, but come on. We can't keep giving away basic freedoms under the name of "security". Are people who made tasteless jokes about these subjects next? Are people who murdered next after that? And who exactly gets to decide if someone is beyond redemption? What if the person was wrongly accused? This sets a terrible precedent for the future of the legal system in America.
This is wrong. The government is not able to handle the authority to hold people indefinitely, it has proven this time and time again. Make laws and punishments stronger, life/death penalty for multiple offenders, but do not give them the ability to hold people that have been released...you know it will be abused.
Paul, I agree – so lets hang them or nail them to a pitchfork instead......they deserve to die a painfull and humaliating death.
WOW – Finally something sensible, a law that makes total freaking sense.
It's not a new law, Bill. That is the difficulty that thinking people are having with the ruling. Legislators MAKE laws. Courts INTERPRET laws. An APPOINTED Supreme Court has just re-interpreted the laws (specificaly the fifth amendment) made by ELECTED legislators to be suject to revision at the court's will.