Cite as: 534 U. S. 407 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the constitutional requirements substantively limiting the civil commitment of a dangerous sexual offender—a matter that this Court considered in Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U. S. 346 (1997). The State of Kansas argues that the Kansas Supreme Court has interpreted our decision in Hendricks in an overly restrictive manner. We agree and vacate the Kansas court's judgment.
I
In Hendricks, this Court upheld the Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 59-29a01 et seq. (1994), against constitutional challenge. 521 U. S., at 371. In doing so, the Court characterized the confinement at issue as civil, not criminal, confinement. Id., at 369. And it held that the statutory criterion for confinement embodied in the statute's words "mental abnormality or personality disorder" satisfied " 'substantive' due process requirements." Id., at 356, 360.
In reaching its conclusion, the Court's opinion pointed out that "States have in certain narrow circumstances provided for the forcible civil detainment of people who are unable to control their behavior and who thereby pose a danger to the public health and safety." Id., at 357. It said that "[w]e have consistently upheld such involuntary commitment statutes" when (1) "the confinement takes place pursuant to proper procedures and evidentiary standards," (2) there is a finding of "dangerousness either to one's self or to others," and (3) proof of dangerousness is "coupled . . . with the proof of some additional factor, such as a 'mental illness' or 'mental
van and Michael E. Lackey, Jr.; and for the Washington Legal Foundation et al. by Daniel J. Popeo and Richard A. Samp.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Psychiatric Association et al. by Richard G. Taranto; and for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers et al. by Jody Manier Kris, Lisa Kemler, and Steven R. Shapiro.
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