The case concerned a challenge to a civil commitment statute for sexual predators in Washington state.

The petitioner tried to differentiate this case from previous ones before the Supreme Court which upheld civil commitment statutes.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court, which disagreed with the Ninth Circuit as to the nature of the challenge to the Washington statute.

He wrote simply to "dissociate [himself] from any implication that there is [an] open question" about the ex post facto and Double Jeopardy Clause challenges to the Washington law.

[7] Scalia wrote that the purely civil nature of the commitment statute blocked any Fifth Amendment challenge, which only relate to criminal laws.