United States v. Comstock

United States v. Comstock
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 12, 2010 Decided May 17, 2010
Full case name	United States, Petitioner v. Graydon Earl Comstock, Jr., et al.
Docket no.	08-1224
Citations	560 U.S. 126 (more) 130 S. Ct. 1949; 176 L. Ed. 2d 878
Case history
Prior	507 F. Supp. 2d 522 (E.D.N.C. 2007); affirmed, 551 F.3d 274 (4th Cir. 2009); cert. granted, 557 U.S. 918 (2009).
Subsequent	On remand, 627 F.3d 513 (4th Cir. 2010).
Holding
The federal government may order the civil commitment of a mentally ill, sexually dangerous person beyond the conclusion of his federal sentence.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor
Case opinions
Majority	Breyer, joined by Roberts, Stevens, Ginsburg, Sotomayor
Concurrence	Kennedy (in judgment)
Concurrence	Alito (in judgment)
Dissent	Thomas, joined by Scalia (all but Part III–A–1–b)

United States v. Comstock, 560 U.S. 126 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which held that the federal government has authority under the Necessary and Proper Clause to require the civil commitment of individuals already in Federal custody.^[1] The practice, introduced by the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, was upheld against a challenge that it fell outside the enumerated powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. The decision did not rule on any other aspect of the law's constitutionality, because only the particular issue of Congressional authority was properly before the Court.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}