Whether the lower courts have impermissibly shifted the burden of proof from the Government to a citizen-detainee at a release hearing under the Adam Walsh Act

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Whether in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Comstock, 560 U.S. 126 (2010) authorizing civil commitments pursuant to the Adam Walsh Act, 18 U.S.C. § 4248, (the “Act”), the lower courts have dramatically departed from the usual course of judicial procedure by impermissibly shifting the burden of proof from the Government to a citizen-detainee at a release hearing brought under 18 U.S.C. § 4247(h) without any statutory basis for doing so? Whether the lower courts’ shifting of the burden to the citizen detainee seeking release from civil commitment — an important question of federal law not yet decided by the Supreme Court -violates Foucha v. Louisiana, 504 U.S. 71 (1992), and Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346 (1997)? i