Cite as: 534 U. S. 407 (2002)
Scalia, J., dissenting
B. Edelstein, & M. Hersen eds. 1990) (sex offenders' "compulsive, repetitive, driven behavior . . . appears to fit the criteria of an emotional or psychiatric illness"). And it is often appropriate to say of such individuals, in ordinary English, that they are "unable to control their dangerousness." Hendricks, supra, at 358.
Regardless, Hendricks must be read in context. The Court did not draw a clear distinction between the purely "emotional" sexually related mental abnormality and the "volitional." Here, as in other areas of psychiatry, there may be "considerable overlap between a . . . defective understanding or appreciation and . . . [an] ability to control . . . behavior." American Psychiatric Association Statement on the Insanity Defense, 140 Am. J. Psychiatry 681, 685 (1983) (discussing "psychotic" individuals). Nor, when considering civil commitment, have we ordinarily distinguished for constitutional purposes among volitional, emotional, and cognitive impairments. See, e. g., Jones v. United States, 463 U. S. 354 (1983); Addington v. Texas, 441 U. S. 418 (1979). The Court in Hendricks had no occasion to consider whether confinement based solely on "emotional" abnormality would be constitutional, and we likewise have no occasion to do so in the present case.
* * *
For these reasons, the judgment of the Kansas Supreme Court is vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Thomas joins, dissenting.
Today the Court holds that the Kansas Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) cannot, consistent with so-called substantive due process, be applied as written. It does so even though, less than five years ago, we upheld the very same
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