264
Opinion of the Court
Act is civil in circumstances where a direct attack on that decision is not before this Court.
Justice Thomas, concurring in the judgment, takes issue with our view that the question before the Court concerns an as-applied challenge to a civil Act. He first contends that respondent's challenge is not a true "as-applied" challenge because respondent does not claim that the statute " 'by its own terms' is unconstitutional as applied . . . but rather that the statute is not being applied according to its terms at all." Post, at 271. We respectfully disagree. The Act requires "adequate care and individualized treatment," Wash. Rev. Code § 71.09.080(2) (Supp. 2000), but the Act is silent with respect to the confinement conditions required at the Center, and that is the source of many of respondent's complaints, see supra, at 259-260. Justice Thomas next contends that we incorrectly assume that the Act is civil, instead of viewing the Act as " 'otherwise . . . civil,' or civil 'on its face.' " Post, at 270 (emphasis added by Thomas, J.). However the Washington Act is described, our analysis in this case turns on the prior finding by the Washington Supreme Court that the Act is civil, and this Court's decision in Hendricks that a nearly identical Act was civil. Petitioner could not have claimed that the Washington Act is "otherwise" or "facially" civil without relying on those prior decisions.
In dissent, Justice Stevens argues that we "incorrectly assum[e]" that the Act is "necessarily civil," post, at 275, but the case has reached this Court under that very assumption. The Court of Appeals recognized that the Act is civil, and treated respondent's claim as an individual, "as-applied" challenge to the Act. The Court of Appeals then remanded the case to the District Court for an evidentiary hearing to determine respondent's conditions of confinement. Contrary to the dissent's characterization of the case, the Court of Appeals did not purport to undermine the validity of the Washington Act as a civil confinement scheme. The court did not conclude that respondent's allegations, if substanti-
Page: Index Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007