Opinion ID: 550734
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Analytical considerations

Text: 52 The majority notes that Baxstrom and Jackson provide some support for appellant's position but points out that 18 U.S.C. section 4246 differs from the commitment statute at issue in Jackson by requiring a finding of dangerousness by clear and convincing evidence. In my opinion, however, this additional provision does not remove the statute's constitutional infirmity. The point is not that commitment is predicated on an independent showing of dangerousness, but that involuntary lifetime commitment is possible under the statute with limited review 3 and without the procedural safeguards of a jury trial to which other individuals charged with a federal crime are entitled. 53 Federal criminal defendants have the right to a jury trial when threatened with six months or more of imprisonment. Codispoti v. Pennsylvania, 418 U.S. 506, 512, 94 S.Ct. 2687, 2691, 41 L.Ed.2d 912 (1974). Within this class of federal criminal defendants is a subclass suspected of being dangerous by virtue of mental disease. Under 18 U.S.C. section 4246, this subclass alone is denied the right to a jury trial even though a judicial determination of dangerousness can result in involuntary, lifetime commitment with no automatic, periodic review in which its members can themselves participate. 4 54 To survive an equal protection challenge under the applicable heightened scrutiny standard, the differential treatment afforded Sahhar and those similarly situated must be substantially related to an important government interest. According to the majority, that interest is twofold: (1) the protection of society from dangerous criminal defendants, and (2) the control and treatment of dangerous persons within the federal justice system. 55 I do not dispute that Congress has a substantial interest in enacting legislation targeting those accused of federal crimes. I also appreciate the government's need to protect its citizens from dangerous criminals. I cannot agree, however, that these interests are substantially related to a statutory classification which denies a jury trial to federal criminal defendants facing involuntary commitment based on the suspicion that they have a mental defect rendering them dangerous. Denying a criminal defendant the right to a jury determination of dangerousness does not make our streets safer; it merely compromises the procedural integrity of the judicial system. 5 56 The instant case is likewise distinguishable from McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, 403 U.S. 528, 91 S.Ct. 1976, 29 L.Ed.2d 647 (1971), on which the majority relies, which held that jury trials are not constitutionally required in juvenile proceedings. McKeiver did not address the issue of equal protection. From the standpoint of equal protection, the government's interest in withholding a jury trial is much clearer in the case of juveniles. As the Supreme Court noted, requiring jury trials in juvenile proceedings would put an effective end to what has been the idealistic prospect of an intimate, informal protective proceeding. McKeiver, 403 U.S. at 545, 91 S.Ct. at 1986. There is no such idealistic prospect at work with respect to individuals such as Sahhar. In the instant case, the government's interest is not to decriminalize the process for humanitarian reasons, as in McKeiver, but rather, as the majority notes, to protect society from dangerous criminals. Denying jury trials is simply not substantially related to this interest. 6