Thursday, February 23, 2012

Court-Ordered Psychiatric Treatment: SB371

Virginia Senate Bill #371, which was enacted into law on February 20, actually clarifies (and narrows) the conditions under which judges can declare Virginia residents incompetent and order psychiatric hospitalization:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+SB371ER

Considering that provision for this kind of process was already part of our law, and that it's not (yet) been used "to disappear" dissidents, I actually like SB371. But we need a lot more narrow restrictions on this kind of law. Bill reading requires paranoia--you have to think, while reading, either "How could I use this law to harm an enemy?" or "How could an enemy use this law to harm me?"--and the potential for harm of court-ordered hospitalization is obvious.

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