CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Supreme Court of Alaska (2024)
Melinda Xiong
In Matter of Jayden A., 551 P.3d 551 (Alaska 2024), the supreme court held that the superior court’s failure to schedule a requested review detention hearing as immediately as possible, raised substantive due process concerns. (Id. at 553). A court ordered a patient’s hospitalization for evaluation but because of lack of capacity in state evaluation facilities, detained the patient in a hospital setting for twelve days. (Id. at 551). After having been detained for seven days, the patient filed an expedited request before the superior court for an immediate hearing on whether the ongoing detention violated his substantive due process rights. (Id.). The superior court granted the unopposed request but scheduled the hearing to occur twelve days after the patient’s request. (Id.). The patient then filed an emergency petition, arguing that the failure to schedule an immediate review hearing contributed to prolonged pre-evaluation detention – a violation of his substantive due process rights. (Id.). The supreme court agreed, finding that scheduling a review hearing twelve days following the patient’s request effectively operated as a denial of the request for immediate review. (Id. at 553). The supreme court explained that the purpose of orders authorizing hospitalization for evaluation was to provide “immediate delivery” to an evaluation facility so that the evaluation period could begin without delay. (Id. at 552). Here, however, the superior court had scheduled a review hearing for what would have been the patient’s nineteenth day in court-ordered pre-evaluation confinement, raising substantive due process concerns. (Id. at 552–53). Vacating the scheduling order, the supreme court concluded that the superior court had abused its discretion by not scheduling the requested review hearing as immediately as possible. (Id. at 553).
