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    Mitchell Hamline School of Law, located in St. Paul, Minnesota offers a rigorous, practice-based experience, preparing graduates to serve clients and communities. Our motivated students study full time or part time, on-campus or partially online in the way that fits their lives.

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Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center

SVP

Litigation and Policy Resource Center

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Search SOLPRC

Recent Cases

  • McDeid v. Johnston (Minn. 2023)

  • Doe v. Department of Justice (C.D. Cal. 2023)

  • In re T.O. (Cal. Ct. App. 2022)

  • People v. Kastman (Ill. 2022)

  • State v. McMahon (La. Ct. App. 2022)

  • Commonwealth v. Roderick (Mass. 2022)

  • Lake Naomi Club, Inc. v. Rosado (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2022)

  • State v. Larson (Minn. 2022)

  • Doe as Next Friend of Doe #6 v. Swearingen (11th Cir. 2022)

  • McGuire v. Marshall (11th Cir. 2022)

Contact Information

Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center

875 Summit Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55105

Professor Eric Janus, Director

eric.janus @mitchellhamline.edu

Madeline Ranum, Policy Fellow

651-695-7638

madeline.ranum @mitchellhamline.edu

People v. Magana (Cal. Ct. App. 2022)

Posted: April 12, 2022
California Court of Appeals opinion remanding matter to the trial court for further consideration and noting a likelihood of merit in claim that the trial court's failure to provide Appellant with a full advisement of his right to a jury trial in the context of a civil commitment proceeding pursuant to the Sexually Violent Predator Act violated his right to equal protection under federal and state law.

People v. Magana (Cal. Ct. App. 2022)

Category: Civil Commitment Cases Tag: California, Equal Protection, Jury Trial Advisement, SVP

Fields v. State of Missouri (Mo. Ct. App. 2022)

Posted: April 12, 2022
Missouri Court of Appeals decision in an ineffective assistance of counsel case concluding that, unlike the risk of deportation assessed in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), civil commitment under Missouri's "Sexually Violent Predator" statute is a collateral consequence as opposed to a presumptively mandatory consequence and, therefore, plea counsel was not obligated to inform Appellant of the potential consequence of indefinite civil commitment prior to Appellant's guilty plea.

Fields v. State of Missouri (Mo. Ct. App. 2022)

Category: Civil Commitment Cases Tag: Guilty Plea, Ineffective Assistance, Missouri, SVP

Powers v. Doll, et al. (Ill. Ct. App. 2022)

Posted: April 12, 2022
Illinois Court of Appeals decision holding that an individual presently committed under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act ("SVP Act") may not file suit for legal malpractice without first alleging that he is not, in fact, a "sexually violent person." 

Powers v. Doll, et al. (Ill. Ct. App. 2022)

Category: Civil Commitment Cases Tag: Illinois, Malpractice, SVP

People v. Jackson (Cal. Ct. App. 2022)

Posted: March 5, 2022
California Court of Appeal decision reversing and remanding trial court in an involuntary commitment SVPA case, holding that exclusion of critical defense expert testimony to rebut the prosecution's two expert witnesses deprived Appellant of a fair trial.

People v. Jackson (Cal. Ct. App. 2022)

Category: Civil Commitment Cases Tag: California, Due Process, Expert Witness, SVP

State v. Townsend (Ohio 2020)

Posted: December 14, 2020
Ohio Supreme Court opinion holding that a state law designating certain individuals as sexually violent predators, subjecting them to enhanced criminal sentencing, could not be applied retroactively.

State v. Townsend (Ohio 2020)

Category: SORN Cases Tag: 6th Cir., Ex Post Facto, Ohio, SVP

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Butler (Pa. 2020)

Posted: March 26, 2020
Pennsylvania Supreme Court opinion affirming the constitutionality of Pennsylvania's 'sexually violent predator' designations, which require additional fact-finding beyond a conviction for a sexual offense.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Butler (Pa. 2020)

Category: SORN Cases Tag: 3rd Cir., Apprendi / Alleyne, Pennsylvania, Punishment, SVP

In re Chapman (Mass. 2019)

Posted: June 11, 2019
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Opinion holding that individual who state alleges meets the criteria for an SVP, but whom neither examiner concludes is an SVP, is entitled to release pending trial.

In re Chapman (Mass. 2019)

Category: Civil Commitment Cases Tag: 1st Cir., Massachusetts, SVP

Litmon v. Harris (9th Cir. 2014)

Posted: January 20, 2019
9th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion affirming the dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit alleging that California's "sexually violent predator" designation violated a variety of constitutional rights.

Litmon v. Harris (9th Cir. 2014)

Category: SORN Cases Tag: 9th Cir., California, Equal Protection, Ex Post Facto, Substantive Due Process, SVP

Beyond Strict Scrutiny: Forbidden Purpose and the “Civil Commitment” Power

Posted: June 29, 2018
Sex offender civil commitment (SOCC) is a massive deprivation of liberty as severe as penal incarceration. Because it eschews most of the "great safeguards" constraining the criminal power, SOCC demands careful constitutional scrutiny. Although the Supreme Court has clearly applied heightened scrutiny in judging civil commitment schemes, it has never actually specified where on the scrutiny spectrum its analysis falls. This article argues that standard three-tier scrutiny analysis is not the most coherent way to understand the Supreme Court’s civil commitment jurisprudence. Rather than a harm-balancing judgment typical of three-tier scrutiny, the Court’s civil commitment cases are best understood as forbidden purpose cases, a construct that is familiar in many areas of the Court’s constitutional analysis...

Beyond Strict Scrutiny: Forbidden Purpose and the “Civil Commitment” Power

Category: Civil Commitment Secondary Materials Tag: Law Review, SVP

Assessing the Real Risk of Sexually Violent Predators: Doctor Padilla’s Dangerous Data [Law Review]

Posted: June 29, 2018
This Article uses internal memoranda and emails to describe the efforts of the California Department of Mental Health to suppress a serious and well-designed study that showed just 6.5% of untreated sexually violent predators were arrested for a new sex crime within 4.8 years of release from a locked mental facility. The Article begins by historically situating sexually violent predator laws and then explains the constitutionally critical role that prospective sexual dangerousness plays in justifying these laws. The Article next explains how the U.S. Supreme Court and the highest state courts have allowed these laws to exist without requir- ing any proof of actual danger. It then describes the California study and recon- ciles its findings with those of a well-known Washington study by explaining the preventive effects of increasing age. Finally, the Article explains how these results undermine the justification for indeterminate lifetime commitment of sex offenders.

Assessing the Real Risk of Sexually Violent Predators: Doctor Padilla’s Dangerous Data [Law Review]

Category: Civil Commitment Secondary Materials, News and Notes Tag: Recidivism, Secondary Materials, SVP

Topics

Jurisdiction

10th Cir. 11th Cir. 1st Cir. 2nd Cir. 3rd Cir. 4th Cir. 5th Cir. 6th Cir. 7th Cir. 8th Cir. 9th Cir. 9th Circuit Alabama Alaska Arizona California Colorado Connecticut D.C. Cir. Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Neb. Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas United States Supreme Court Utah Vermont Virginia Vt. Washington Wisconsin

Constitutional Issues

10th Amendment 14th Amendment 1st Amendment 4th Amendment 5th Amendment 6th Amendment 8th Amendment Assistance of Counsel Bail Bill of Attainder Compelled Speech Double Jeopardy Due Process Equal Protection Ex Post Facto Foreign Commerce Clause Fourteenth Amendment Freedom of Association Full Faith and Credit Habeas Corpus Necessary and Proper Nondelegation Overbreadth Privileges and Immunities Procedural Due Process Right to Jury Trial Right to Parent Right to Travel Ripeness Speedy Trial Standing Substantive Due Process Takings Clause Treaty power Void-for-Vagueness

Substantive Issues

Actual Innocence Administrative exhaustion Administrative Procedures Act AEDPA Antisocial Personality Disorder Apprendi / Alleyne As-Applied AWA Burden of Proof Churches Civil Commitment Collateral Estoppel Conditions of Confinement Conditions of Release Daubert Deregistration Evidentiary Standards Expungement Extraterritorial Registration Failure to Register Familial Relationships GPS Halloween Hearsay Heck bar Homelessness Housing HUD Immigration Ineffective Assistance International Travel Internet Identifiers Internet Restrictions Jury Instructions Juvenile Registration Mental disorder Non-Sexual Offense Notification Out-of-state Offense Paraphilia Diagnosis Pardon Parole Personality Disorder Plea Agreement Plethysmograph PLRA Polygraphs Preemption Presence Restrictions Procedural Default PROTECT Act Punishment Qualified Immunity Recidivism Reclassification Res Judicata Residential Banishment Retroactive Application (Non-EPF) Revocation of Supervision Risk School Property Second / Subsequent Offense Sentencing Sexual Predator designation Sign Posting Special Needs Supervised Release SVP Tiering / Classification Tolling Transitional Release Travel Travel Restrictions Treatment Programs Voting Rights





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