United States v. Hemani · ¶25

In truth, the habitual drunkard laws the government invokes fall into three general categories. First are vagrancy laws. Both at the founding and in the decades following it, vagrants—a group that sometimes included habitual drunkards—could be “confne[d] in a workhouse” or “jail[ed].” Brief for United States 19. Second are civil-commitment statutes. Around the same time, many States allowed courts to appoint guardians for various individuals, including habitual drunkards, or authorized their “commit[ment] to asylums.” Id., at 21. Third are surety laws. Under them, judicial officers, again in the founding era and later, could compel habitual drunkards and others to post surety bonds to ensure their good behavior. “A person who failed to post bond,” the government explains, “would be jailed, while a person who posted bond and then misbehaved would forfeit the bond.” Id., at 22.

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