United States v. Hemani · ¶40
A similar story unfolds when it comes to what the government describes as civil-commitment laws. Consider the first such law the government cites: an 1827 Act in the Michigan Territory. Act of Apr. 12, 1827, in 1827 Mich. Terr. Laws 60. Worried that habitual drunkards “oftentimes . . . waste[d] their estates by excessive drinking . . . and thereby involve[d] themselves and [their] families in distress, misery and ruin,” that law permitted a probate judge to assign a guardian to a habitual drunkard to “take care of such person, and [his] estate.” Id., at 58, 60. Or consider a law the government cites from later in the 19th century. It authorized courts to confne habitual drunkards to asylums in order to “preven[t them] from using intoxicating liquors” and “refor[m]” them. Act of May 1, 1890, § 2, in 1890 Iowa Acts 67. By their own terms, laws like these did not seek to protect the public…Read in context ›
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