People v. Williams

Opinion

BAXTER, J.

In Kansas v. Crane (2002) 534 U.S. 407 [151 L.Ed.2d 856, 122 S.Ct. 867], the United States Supreme Court held that the safeguards of personal liberty embodied in the due process guaranty of the federal Constitution prohibit the involuntary confinement of persons on the basis that they are dangerously disordered without “proof [that they have] serious difficulty in controlling [their dangerous] behavior.” (Id. at p. 413.) California’s Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA or Act; Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.)1 does not use that precise language in defining who is eligible…