Archive for October, 2005

My absence from blogging has been long and mostly because I’ve been busy and haven’t been feeling too well. However, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that SCOTUS had denied cert in Dretke v. Coleman [pdf], a Fifth Circuit case. The ruling in the Fifth Ciruit was:

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is authorized by Texas law to
impose reasonable conditions on parole to serve the interests of protecting the
community and rehabilitating the parolee. When those conditions impact a liberty
interest of the parolee, they may be imposed only with justification. The Department
may condition Coleman’s parole on sex offender registration and therapy only if he is
determined to constitute a threat to society by reason of his lack of sexual control.
Absent a conviction of a sex offense, the Department must afford him an appropriate
hearing and find that he possesses this offensive characteristic before imposing such
conditions. This court was told at oral argument that evidence of Coleman’s lack of
sexual control exists. None appears in the record, however, and no contention is
made that Coleman has been afforded a hearing meeting the requirements of due
process.

We therefore hold that the sex offender conditions placed on Coleman’s
parole are invalid, and we remand the cause to the district court for disposition
consistent with this opinion. The state is not precluded from further efforts to add
these same conditions to Coleman’s parole upon proper notice and consistent with
this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.

Essentially, that offenders who have not been convicted of a sex offense have a liberty interest created by the Due Process clause in freedom from sex offender classifications and conditions. The state parole department must afford a habeas petitioner an appropriate hearing before it can constitutionally impose sex offender parole conditions upon him. In light of SCOTUS’ refusal to address whether sex offender registration violation substantive due process in CT v. Doe, their denial of cert here is pretty significant.