Supreme Court of the United States
McKune v. Lile
June 10, 2002536 U.S. 24
Summary
The Court reversed and remanded the judgment invalidating Kansas's sex-offender treatment requirements, but no rationale commanded five votes. Justice Kennedy's plurality, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and Thomas, concluded that the loss of prison privileges and transfer associated with refusing treatment did not compel self-incrimination, emphasizing rehabilitation, prison administration, and the absence of atypical and significant hardship. Justice O'Connor concurred in the judgment on the narrower ground that the particular consequences were insufficiently severe to constitute compulsion; she rejected equating Fifth Amendment compulsion with the due-process hardship standard. Justice Stevens dissented, joined by Justices Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer, arguing that the automatic sanctions impermissibly punished invocation of the privilege and that Kansas could pursue rehabilitation through immunity or voluntary participation.
Holding
- Whether the consequences imposed for refusing Kansas's sex-offender treatment program compelled self-incrimination.. The particular reductions in privileges and changes in confinement shown by this record were insufficiently severe to constitute compelled self-incrimination, so the judgment invalidating the program could not stand.
Docket 00-1187
Cited authorities
- 42 U.S.C. § 1983
- Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 197.440
- 42 Am. J. Legal Hist. 235
- 93 Mich. L. Rev. 857
Cited by
- John Doe, Sex Offender Registry Board No. 8725 v. Sex Offender Registry Board
- Commonwealth v. Russell M. Cory — Ireland, J., dissenting
- Commonwealth v. Roy L. Hunt
- Steven Smith v. Sex Offender Registry Board
- Commonwealth v. Roy L. Hunt
- James Paul Venable, Jr. v. Commonwealth of Virginia
- In Re Hector Rolando Medina, Relator
- Hope v. Harris