Federal Power to Civilly Commit Dangerous Sex Offenders:  At Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh speculates that the Supreme Court will soon be addressing whether the federal government can civilly commit, in a federal facility, any 'sexually dangerous' person 'in the custody' of the Bureau of Prisons, even after that person has completed his entire prison sentence.  In United States v. Comstock, the Fourth Circuit found Congress action under 18 U.S.C. § 4248 unconstitutional, but, Volokh reports that today, the Eighth Circuit reached the opposite result.  In United States v. Tom, the Eighth Circuit reasoned that without civil commitment under 18 U.S.C. § 4248 "the underlying federal criminal law would be frustrated[,]" as would "the power to prosecute or punish..."  The court reasoned that because the federal government retains a vast amount of power over criminal defendants subject to a term of supervised release, the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause allowed Congress to provide for civil commitment of offenders like Tom.  Tom was decided by a three judge panel, it remains to be seen whether the Eighth Circuit will hear the case en banc.

Investigating Lawyers for the Office of Legal Counsel:  David Ingram reports on Blog of Legal Times that the Senate is debating whether it should "investigate former lawyers with the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel over their involvement with memos that authorized harsh interrogation techniques for suspected terrorists."  According to Ingram, Senators at the first congressional hearing on the issue debated whether it could pursue action against the authors of the memos.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and other Democrats seemed to believe that the authors acted improperly, but Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned that too much scrutiny would "make this country less safe."  Congress does not have authority to sanction the lawyers, but Ingram reports that Democrats have made it clear that they wish to ramp up oversight of what happened in the OLC during the Bush Administration.  James Taranto warns that too much oversight could come "back to bite Speaker Pelosi."

SCOTUS cast on Waddington and Pulido:  The Federalist Society has posted a SCOTUS cast discussing the Supreme Court's decisions in Waddington v. Sarausad and Hedgpeth v. Pulido. Casey, a former adjunct professor at George Mason University School of Law, is now a Partner at Baker Hostetler.  His practice focuses on federal, environmental, constitutional and election law issues.  Casey had previously commented on both the oral arguments in both cases.  Today's post also discusses the opinions. Our brief on Pulido is available here.