State v Dykes

5-9-2012 South Carolina:

State v Dykes

Jennifer Rayanne Dykes appeals the circuit court's order that she be subject to satellite monitoring for the rest of her natural life pursuant to Section 23-3-540(C) of the South Carolina Code (Supp. 2010). She lodges five constitutional challenges to this statute: it violates her substantive due process rights, her right to procedural due process, the Ex Post Facto clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and her right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. We hold the mandatory imposition of lifetime satellite monitoring violates Dykes' substantive due process rights and reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Case turns on:
Before analyzing the right argued by Dykes, we note that we must tread carefully in this arena. Over the years, the Supreme Court of the United States has expanded the liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause beyond the specific freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights. Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 720 (1997) (noting that the Supreme Court has found the right to marry, have children, direct the education of one's children, marital privacy, use contraception, retain bodily integrity, and receive an abortion are all protected). The Supreme Court, however, "has always been reluctant to expand the concept of substantive due process because guideposts for responsible decision making in this uncharted area are scarce and open-ended." Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 125 (1992). Furthermore, when a court deems a right fundamental under the umbrella of substantive due process, it effectively removes the matter from discussion and legislative debate. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 720. We must therefore "exercise the utmost care whenever we are asked to break new ground in this field, lest the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause be subtly transformed into the policy preferences of the Members of this Court." Id. (internal citations and quotations omitted).

....

Having served her sentence, I believe Appellant possesses a liberty interest that is violated by the mandatory, non-reviewable provisions of section 23-3-540(C). Applying the rational basis test to Appellant's due process challenge, I would find the mandated lifetime satellite monitoring and absence of any judicial review related to an assessment of an individual's likelihood of re-offending renders the challenged provision arbitrary. Further, in light of the legislature's predication of the statutory scheme on the substantial purpose of protecting the public from sex offenders who may re-offend, I would find the lack of risk assessment within section 23-3-540(C) not rationally related to such purpose, and thus unconstitutional. See Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418 (1979) (finding an individual's liberty interest in the outcome of a civil commitment proceeding is of such weight and gravity that due process requires the state to justify confinement by clear and convincing proof); Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346 (1997) (upholding sexually violent predator commitment statute and emphasizing the role of the review to ensure commitment lasts only so long as it is necessary to protect the public); see also Lyng v. Int'l Union, 485 U.S. 360 (1988) (noting that although allegedly arbitrary legislation invokes the least intrusive rational basis test, that standard of review is "not a toothless one"); Luckabaugh, 351 S.C. at 139-40, 568 S.E.2d at 346 (finding due process ensures that a statute which deprives a person of a liberty interest has "at a minimum, a rational basis, and may not be arbitrary").

I believe the finding of arbitrariness is additionally supported by the South Carolina Constitution, which, unlike the United States Constitution, has an express privacy provision. See S.C. Const. art. I, § 10 ("The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures and unreasonable invasions of privacy shall not be violated . . . ."). While our constitution's privacy provision does not transform a purported privacy interest into a fundamental right for purposes of applying the strict scrutiny test, I believe it does inform the analysis of whether a state law is arbitrary and lends additional support to the conclusion that section 23-3-540(C) is unconstitutional. Cf. State v. Weaver, 374 S.C. 313, 649 S.E.2d 479 (2007) (holding that by articulating a specific prohibition against unreasonable invasions of privacy, the people of South Carolina have indicated a higher level of privacy protection than the federal Constitution).

Therefore, I concur in result to reverse and remand.

The rest of the case is worth reading.