Appeals court asked for sex-offender law rehearing

The 4th Cir decision found that the states are empowered to create civil commitment schemes and not the feds. Now, if one thinks about what is meant by "the states" one realizes it means geographic area because that is the only place a person can be. Now, technically there is no such place, geographically speaking, known as the Fed State. All Federal facilities are within actual states. Accordingly, if when a person is to be released from prison, whether it is a state or federal facility, then it is the state that says whether that person can be in that state (geographically speaking). Federal prisons do not release inmates only to federal lands. i.e. Indian reservations. Therefore, federal civil commitment, for federal lands, would revert to Indian reservations which are likened to states because they are geographic areas. The federal claims must fail simply because they are not logical, they fail to recognize the inherent geographic nature of the U.S. Constitution as to granting jurisdiction to the states.

2-24-2009 National:

RICHMOND, Va. The Department of Justice on Monday asked a full appeals court to rule that the federal government has the power to hold sex offenders in custody indefinitely beyond the end of their prison terms.

The filing seeks the reversal of a three-judge panel's ruling last month that Congress overstepped its authority when it allowed civil commitment of "sexually dangerous" federal inmates. The panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that the law intrudes on police powers that the Constitution reserves for states, many of which have their own similar statutes.

In asking the full 4th Circuit to rehear the case, the government argues that it assumes responsibility for inmates in federal custody and should be allowed to "create civil commitment procedures for such persons to protect the public safety."

Five inmates at the federal prison hospital in Butner, N.C., challenged the law after they were held beyond the end of their sentences. The federal public defender's office in Raleigh, which represented the inmates, declined to comment Monday.

In upholding a ruling by U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt of Raleigh, the 4th Circuit panel had become the first federal appeals court to rule on an issue that's divided courts nationwide. The Richmond court's decision is only binding only in the states in the 4th Circuit: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland.

Civil commitment was authorized by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which took effect in July 2006. The act, named after the son of "America's Most Wanted" television host John Walsh, also established a national sex-offender registry along with other provisions. ..News Source.. by ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON