Sexually violent predator laws and the liberal state: An ominous threat to individual liberty

No other country has taken the idea of the liberal state – a government that relies on the rule of law to limit state power and maximize individual liberty – as seriously as the United States. But now many states are manipulating the governmentʹs civil commitment authority to indefinitely confine sex offenders who have served their criminal sentences and are entitled to their freedom in the community. This new system of preventive detention masquerading as civil commitment poses an ominous threat to individual liberty and to the continued vitality of the liberal state.