Lessard v. Schmidt

Alberta Lessard was picked up by two police officers in front of her residence in West Allis, Wisconsin, and taken to the Mental Health Center North Division, Milwaukee, on October 29, 1971. At the Center, the police officers, defendants James D. Mejchar and Jack Schneider, filled out a form entitled “Emergency Detention for Mental Observation,” following which Miss Lessard was detained on an emergency basis. On November 1, 1971, the same police officers appeared before defendant Judge Christ T. Seraphim, Milwaukee County Court, and restated the allegations contained in the petition for emergency detention. On the basis of this ex parte proceeding, Judge Seraphim issued an order permitting the confinement of Miss Lessard for an additional ten days. Thereafter, on November 4, 1971, defendant Dr. George Currier filed an “Application for Judicial Inquiry” with Judge Seraphim, stating that Miss Lessard was suffering from schizophrenia and recommending permanent commitment. At this time Judge Seraphim ordered two physicians to examine Miss Lessard, and signed a second temporary detention document, permitting Miss Lessard’s detention for ten more days from the date of the order. This period was again extended on November 12, 1971. Neither Miss Lessard nor anyone who might act on her behalf was informed of any of these proceedings.

On November 5, 1971, Judge Seraphim held an interview with Miss Lessard at the Mental Health Center. At this interview, Judge Seraphim informed Miss Lessard that two doctors had been appointed to examine her and that a guardian ad litem would be appointed to represent her. Ho asked her if she wished to have her own doctor examine her. Miss Lessard replied that she had no physician. Miss Lessard was not told of this interview in advance and was given no opportunity to prepare for it. Following the interview, Judge Seraphim signed an order appointing Daniel A. Noonan, an attorney, as guardian ad litem for Miss Lessard.

Miss Lessard, on her own initiative, retained counsel through the Milwaukee *1082 Legal Services, on November 9 or 10. On November 15, 1971, at 2:00 P.M., Miss Lessard was notified that a commitment hearing had been scheduled for 8:30 A.M., the following morning. This hearing was adjourned and reset for November 24, 1971, in order to give Miss Lessard's attorney an opportunity to appear. Miss Lessard’s request that she be allowed to go home during the interim was denied. At the November 24 hearing before Judge Seraphim, testimony was given by one of the police officers and three physicians and Miss Lessard was ordered committed for thirty additional days. Judge Seraphim gave no reasons for his order except to state that he found Miss Lessard to be “mentally ill.” Although the hospital authorities permitted Miss Lessard to go home on an out-patient “parole” basis three days later, the thirty day commitment order has been extended for one month each month since November 24, 1971.

The present suit, brought as a class action on behalf of Miss Lessard and all other persons 18 years of age or older who are being held involuntarily pursuant to any emergency, temporary or permanent commitment provision of the Wisconsin involuntary commitment statute, was filed on November 12, 1971. Jurisdiction was claimed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. 1 The complaint sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the enforcement of certain portions of Wis. Stat.Ann. §§ 51.02, 51.03 and 51.04, relating to the procedure for involuntary detention and commitment of persons alleged to be suffering from mental illness. The complaint sought a temporary restraining order restraining the officials involved from proceeding further against Miss Lessard or detaining her involuntarily for any additional length of time. A three-judge court was requested. In an order dated December 3, 1971, Judge Reynolds of the federal district court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin denied temporary relief but agreed that the substantial constitutional claims raised by the pleadings required the convening of a three-judge court. 28 U.S.C. § 2281.

Miss Lessard alleges that the Wisconsin procedure for involuntary civil commitment denied her due process of law in the following respects: in permitting involuntary detention for a possible maximum period of 145 days without benefit of hearing on the necessity of detention; in failing to make notice of all hearings mandatory; in failing to give adequate and timely notice where notice is given; in failing to provide for mandatory notice of right to trial by jury; in failing to give a right to counsel or appointment of counsel at a meaningful time; in failing to permit counsel to be present at psychiatric interviews; in failing to provide for exclusion of hearsay evidence and for the privilege against self-incrimination; in failing to provide access to an independent psychiatric examination by a physician of the allegedly mentally ill person's choice; 2 in permitting commitment of a person without a determination that the person is in need of commitment beyond a reasonable doubt; and in failing to describe the standard for commitment so that persons may be able to ascertain the standard of conduct under which they may be detained with reasonable certainty. Before turning to these issues we must dispose of a jurisdictional question.

*1083 I.

Defendants insist that this court lacks jurisdiction under the principles of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and the federal anti-injunction statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2283. The federal anti-injunction statute is inapplicable to suits under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Mitchum v. Foster, 407 U.S. 225, 92 S.Ct. 2151, 32 L.Ed.2d 705 (1972). The rationale of Younger v. Harris is also inapplicable to this case.

The Supreme Court in Younger severely limited the circumstances in which federal courts should intervene in pending state criminal prosecutions. But the court expressly disavowed extending the same limitations to intervention in pending state civil proceedings like those involved here. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 54, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971) (Stewart, J., concurring). Since Younger, the court has on at least two occasions declined to dismiss federal actions brought while state civil proceedings were pending. Lynch v. Household Finance Corporation, 405 U.S. 538, 92 S.Ct. 1113, 31 L.Ed.2d 424 (1972); Mitchum v. Foster, supra. The basis for distinguishing between criminal and civil cases in applying principles of comity were summarized by Justice Stewart in Younger:

“Courts of equity have traditionally shown greater reluctance to intervene in criminal prosecutions than in civil cases. [Citations omitted.] The offense to state interests is likely to be less in a civil proceeding. A State’s decision to classify conduct as criminal provides some indication of the importance it has ascribed to prompt and unencumbered enforcement of its law. * * * ” 401 U.S. at 55 n. 2, 91 S.Ct. at 757.

Even if Younger were to apply to state civil actions, we do not believe that such an action existed under the circumstances shown here. Although notice had been filed with the sheriff and examining physicians, setting a hearing for involuntary commitment prior to the filing of the federal court action on November 12, 1971, plaintiff had no written notice of any “pending” proceeding at the time this action was instituted.

It is also open to doubt whether the state court “action” was the type of state court proceeding against which principles of federalism and comity have been directed. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that a civil commitment proceeding is not in the nature of a state court action. In re Brand, 251 Wis. 531, 30 N.W.2d 238, appeal dismissed, cert. denied, Brand v. Milwaukee County, 335 U.S. 802, 69 S.Ct. 34, 93 L.Ed. 359 (1948).

^Furthermore, assuming that a state court action existed at the time this suit was filed, the proceedings against which this action are addressed have long since terminated and the existence of a right of appeal is speculative. In In re Brand, supra, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that there was no right of appeal .from a civil commitment proceeding. Although the statute has since been amended, the legislature did not specifically authorize an appeal. The lack of such a provision in the general civil commitment statute is in sharp contrast to the explicit appeal right provided under the Wisconsin Sex Crimes Act. Wis. Stat.Ann. § 975.16. If any right of appeal does exist, it arises under Wis. Stat.Ann. § 274.01(1) (1972 Supp.), which provides: “Except as otherwise provided the time within which a writ of error may be issued or an appeal taken to obtain a review by the supreme court of any judgment or order in any civil action or special proceeding in a court of record is limited to 3 months from service of notice of entry of such judgment or order or, if no notice is served, to 6 months from date of entry.” An additional provision states that the above time limitations do not apply in cases in which a judgment is rendered against an insane person. However, since the very purpose for an appeal of a judgment of insanity is to challenge that determination, a reversal of *1084 the judgment would presumably bring the time limitations into operation and the three or six month limitation would therefore be applicable. The order challenged here was entered on November 24, 1971; the time for appeal, if it ever existed, has therefore run.

In these circumstances it would be unjust to require the plaintiff to forego this suit. Principles of federalism and comity do not require this court to refuse to act when to do so would only discourage the assertion of federal constitutional rights and perhaps cause irreparable injury to persons subject to involuntary loss of freedom as the result of the challenged commitment procedure. See Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1116, 14 L.Ed.2d 22 (1965). We conclude that jurisdiction is proper under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

II.

The power of the state to deprive a person/of the fundamental liberty to go unimpeded about his or her affairs must rest on a consideration that society has a compelling interest in such deprivation. 3 In criminal cases, this authority is derived from the police power, granted because of the necessity of protecting society from anti-social actions. This power is tempered with stringent procedural safeguards designed to protect the rights of one accused of crime, to assure that no one will be arrested except upon probable cause nor convicted of a crime except in conformity with these procedural rules. In civil commitment .proceedings the same funda-, mental liberties are at stake. State commitment procedures have not, however, traditionally assured the due process safeguards against unjustified deprivation of liberty that are accorded those accused of crime. This has been justified on the premise that the state is acting in the role of parens patriae, and thus depriving an individual of lib- ' erty not to punish him but to treat him. ' Additionally, it is said that the individual may be deprived of liberty under the police power because of society’s need to protect itself against the potential dangerous acts of persons who, because .of mental illness, are likely to act irrationally. The fact that “[i]f a sociologist predicted that a person was eighty per cent likely to commit a felonious act, no law would permit his confinement,” 4 but under the same circumstances a psychiatrist’s recommendation of commitment is likely to be accepted, is sought to be justified on the basis of potential benefit to the one confined in a mental institution. In effect, the present action challenges the validity of this difference in treatment. In order to assess properly the claims of plaintiff, some general discussion of mental commitment procedures and the effects of civil commitment upon those committed is necessary.

A.

The common law had little need to concern itself with, questions of adequate procedure for involuntary confinement because public institutions for the mentally ill were virtually nonexistent. See T Blackstone, Commentaries 305 (Christian ed. 1827). In the colonies, parents and family were expected to care for their own mentally disabled. S. Brakel & R. Rock, The Mentally Disabled and the Law 4 (1971 ed.) [hereinafter cited as Brakel & Rock]. The first mental hospital in the United States was not es *1085 tablished until 1751, with few additional institutions being built' until the middle of the nineteenth century. As a result of the lack of facilities and limited medical knowledge of methods of treatment, those confined were generally clearly deranged and violent. 5 Brakel & Rock, supra, at 5. A New York statute, enacted in 1788, distinguished between the “furiously madd” who were “so far disordered in their senses that they may be dangerous to be permitted to go abroad,” and who could be confined upon the issuance of a warrant by two or more justices, and other “lunatics” who could be taken under the care and protection of friends and relatives. N.Y.Laws of 1788, ch. 31. Under these circumstances, few questions were likely to be raised regarding improper commitment.

Gradually, as more asylums were built, the number of persons committed increased, and confinement was not limited to the obviously dangerous. The change in attitude was reflected in the courts. In 1845, an inmate of a Massachusetts institution for the insane brought a habeas corpus action, alleging that his commitment was illegal. Matter of Josiah Oakes, 8 Law Rep. 123 (Mass. 1845). The Massachusetts Supreme Court held that

“the right to restrain an insane person of his liberty is found in that great law of humanity, which makes it necessary to confine, those whose going at large would be dangerous to themselves or others. . . . And the necessity which creates the law, creates the limitation of the law. The questions must then arise in each particular case, whether a patient’s own safety, or that of others, requires that he should be restrained for a certain time, and whether restraint is necessary for his restoration or will be conducive thereto. The restraint can continue as long as the necessity continues. This is the limitation, and the proper limitation.”

Id. at 125. Dangerousness to self thus became an additional criterion upon which commitment could be based. This criterion apparently rested on an assumption that a state could proceed as parens patriae to protect the interests of the person involved. The doctrine could be justified as a derivation of an English law, under which the King was appointed the guardian of the person and goods of a lunatic. 6 A person found to be a lunatic was committed to the care of a friend who received an allowance with which to care for the unfortunate person. During “lucid moments” the incompetent was permitted to manage his own property, and to generally exercise his civil rights. He was also entitled to an accounting from the King. There was thus a very real difference between the English practice, which could only be for the benefit and protection of the incompetent, and which was only effective during periods of insanity, and the American innovation, which resulted in total, and perhaps permanent, loss of liberty.

Despite its differences with regard to fundamental rights, the parens patriae concept as formulated in Oakes could be justified on humanitarian motives arising from early American practices with regard to indigent incompetents. Deutseh has documented the perils of *1086 these unfortunates, who were expelled from towns along with paupers generally, and who wandered about in bands, subject to the whims and, sometimes, cruelties of a society that equated both mental illness and idleness with moral turpitude. Deutsch, supra, note 5, ch. 3; Brakel & Rock, supra, at 4. For these persons, it was undoubtedly more merciful to erect institutions, and to confine 'the mentally incapacitated for their own safety. They were helpless to survive for long outside of an institutional environment.

—Unfortunately, neither the Massaehusetts court in Oakes 7 nor other courts to follow felt much concern for either a definition of “dangerousness” nor the effects of deprivations of liberty upon those committed. A Mrs. Packard, committed in 1860 under an Illinois statute which allowed married women and infants to be committed on the request of a husband or guardian, found it necessary to campaign vigorously for greater safeguards to involuntary commitment following her release from a state institution. Brakel & Rock, supra, at 8.

Mrs. Packard’s efforts, and those of others, brought some reforms, principally in the form of statutes requiring that no one could be committed without a jury trial by one’s peers. The erosion of the common law requirement of dangerousness continued, however, with the result that many statutes today permit commitment based upon a wide range of showings of “mental illness.” 7 8 The constitutionality of these statutes has, for the most part, never been decided by the Supreme Court. State courts have divided in their opinions on almost all matters relating to the requirements of due process in involuntary commitment proceedings, disagreeing even as to the validity of statutes which have dispensed with the right to jury trial. See Brakel & Rock, supra, at 54. It is at least clear that their justification cannot rest on common law precedent; the common law may have been lax in practice at times, but the basic standard for involuntary deprivation of liberty was perceived to be a stringent one.

B.

The requirements of due process are not static; théy vary depending upon the importance of the interests involved and the nature of subsequent proceedings. Legislative judgments as to procedural guarantees “are questions which the Constitution has entrusted at least in part to' courts, -and upon which courts have been understood to possess particular competence.” In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 70, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 1466, 18 L.Ed. 2d 527 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring & dissenting). With these considerations and the common law background of our present civil commitment laws in mind, we turn to the justifications for permitting civil commitment without the stringent safeguards required in criminal proceedings.

One justification for the relaxation of criminal due process standards, of recent vintage, is that involuntary incarceration carries with it a constitutional right to treatment. See, e. g., Note, “The Nascent Right to Treatment,” 53 Va.L. Rev. 1134, 1140 (1967): “Accepting that due process does not forbid involuntary detention for the purpose of rendering care and treatment under the parens patriae role,; it is still clear that such detention does not meet due process requirements if, in actual practice, treatment beneficial to the patient is not- rendered.” t The issue of a constitutional right to treatment is not before us. However, the difficulties of enforcing such a right have been well *1087 documented. See, e. g., Wyatt v. Stickney, 334 F.Supp. 1341 (M.D.Ala.1971); Livermore et seq., “On the Justifications for Civil Commitment,” 117 Pa.L.Rev. 75, 93 n. 53 (1968); Note, “The Nascent Right to Treatment,” supra. Cf., Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 543, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 1048, 16 L.Ed.2d 84 (1966) (“Apart from raising questions as to the adequacy of custodial and treatment facilities and policies, some of which are not within judicial competence . . .”).

Furthermore, the validity of the parens patriae role and the lifting of procedural safeguards in such instances appears to rest in part on the realities of better treatment for the person subjected to incarceration in a civil proceeding. In Kent v. United States, supra, the Supreme Court, discussing the issue in the context of juvenile courts, observed:

“The objectives are to provide measures of guidance and rehabilitation for the child and protection for society, not to fix criminal responsibility, guilt and punishment. The State is parens patriae rather than prosecuting attorney and judge. But the admonition to function in a ‘parental’ relationship is not an invitation to procedural arbitrariness.

“2. Because the State is supposed to proceed in respect of the child as parens patriae and not as adversary, courts have relied on the premise that the proceedings are ‘civil’ in nature and not criminal, and have asserted that the child cannot complain of the deprivation of important rights available in criminal cases. It has been asserted that he can claim only the fundamental due process right to fair treatment....

“While there can be no doubt of the original laudable purpose of juvenile courts, studies and critiques in recent years raise serious questions as to whether actual performance measures well enough against theoretical purpose to make tolerable the immunity of the process from the reach of constitutional guaranties applicable to adults. There is much evidence that some juvenile courts, . . . lack the personnel, facilities and techniques to perform adequately as representatives of the State in a parens patriae capacity, at least with respect to children charged with law violation. There is evidence, in fact, that there may be grounds for concern that the child receives the worst of both worlds: that he gets neither the protections accorded to adults nor the solicitous care and regenerative treatment postulated for children.”

Id. at 554-556, 86 S.Ct. at 1054 (emphasis added). New persons familiar with the mental health field will question the applicability of much of the above to persons subjected to involuntary commitment in state institutions. 9

In any event, the argument in favor of relaxed procedures on the basis of a subsequent right to treatment ignores the fact that unless constitutional-’’ ly prescribed procedural due process requirements for involuntary commitment are met, no.person should be subjected to “treatment” against his will. The argument also ignores the fact that many mental illnesses are untreatable. See, e. g., Livermore et seq., “On the Justifications for Civil Commitment,” 117 Pa.L. Rev. 75, 93 (1966) (quoting psychiatric findings that recovery rates from long-term paranoid schizophrenia — the diagnosis- given Miss Lessard’s condition— are very low), and the substantial evidence' that any lengthy hospitalization, particularly where it is involuntary, may greatly increase the symptoms of mental illness and make adjustment to society more difficult. See, e. g., Hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, 91st Congress, 1st and 2d Sess., 214-15, 319, 409 (1969 and 1970) [hereinafter cited as 1970 Hearings] . 10

*1088 A second justification for less stringent safeguards in civil commitment proceedings is simply that the proceedings are “civil” and not “criminal.” That argument should have been laid to rest following the Supreme Court’s decision in In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967), in which the Court found the distinction unpersuasive as an excuse for providing lesser safeguards for juveniles in delinquency proceedings than were given adults charged violations of the criminal law. The only possible argument for a broad civil-criminal distinction in mental commitment proceedings is one based upon dicta in Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962). Robinson held invalid a statute which permitted a drug addict to be subjected to criminal penalties for being an addict. The Court held that a crime based upon status was cruel and unusual punishment, noting that the challenged law was not one “which even purports to provide or require medical treatment.” Id. at 666, 82 S.Ct. at 1420. The Court went on to say:

“It is unlikely that any State at this moment in history would attempt to make it a criminal offense for a person to be mentally ill, or a leper, or to be afflicted with a venereal disease. A State might determine that the general health and welfare require that the victims of these and other human afflictions be dealt with by compulsory treatment, involving quarantine, confinement, or sequestration. But, in the light of contemporary human knowledge, a law which made a criminal offense of such a disease would doubtless be universally thought to be an infliction of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.” Id.

Neither this language nor prior holdings of the Court in any way answer the question of what procedure and proof are required for a determination that a given individual is in need of treatment or confinement. The Court simply restated its prior holdings, in line with the common law and common understanding, that the__state Jg free to project its citizens from the effects of certain illnesses_ upon society at -large. See, e. g., Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11, 27, 25 S.Ct. 358, 362, 49 L.Ed. 643 (1905) (“Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members.”). Robinson does not, therefore, lend support to those who argue that fewer safeguards are constitutionally required in civil commitment proceedings than are required for other deprivations of liberty.

C.

Even a brief examination of the effects of civil commitment upon those adjudged mentally ill shows the importance of strict adherence to stringent procedural requirements and the necessity for narrow, precise standards.

An individual committed to a mental institution loses numerous civil rights. In Wisconsin, hospitalization for mental illness, whether by voluntary admission or involuntary commitment, raises a rebuttable presumption of incompetency. The presumption continues as long as the patient is under the jurisdiction of hospital authorities. 11 Wis.Stat.Ann. § 51.-005(2). An individual adjudged mentally ill in-Wisconsin also faces restrictions on making contracts and limitations on the right to sue and be sued. See Wis.Stat.Ann. §§ 319.215, 260.22 (1972 Supp.), 262.06(2) (b) (1972 Supp.), 296.02, 893.33. Restrictions on licenses required to engage in certain professions also accompany an adjudica *1089 tion of mental illness in Wisconsin. Wis. Stat.Ann. § 441.07 (1972 Supp.) (registered and practical nurses), § 447.07(7) (1972 Supp.) (dentists and dental hygienists), § 256.286 (attorneys). Persons found mentally ill in Wisconsin are, like felons, unable to vote. Wis.Stat. Ann. §§ 6.03(1), 12.59; Wis.Const. art. 3, § 2. 12 The mentally ill are also prohibited from driving a car and serving on juries.

Wis.Stat.Ann. §§ 343.06(5), (7), 343.-25(4) (driving), 255.01 (jury service). No person found to be “insane, imbecile, or feeble-minded” may participate in a marriage contract. Wis.Stat.Ann. § 245.03.

It is obvious that the commitment adjudication carries with it an enormous and devastating effect on an individual’s civil rights. In some respects, such as the limitation on holding a driver’s license, the civil deprivations which follow civil commitment are more serious than the deprivations which accompany a criminal conviction.

In addition to the statutory disabilities associated with an adjudication of mental illness, and just as serious, are the difficulties that the committed individual will face in attempting to adjust to life outside the institution following release. The stigma which accompanies any hospitalization for mental illness has been brought to public attention in the news stories surrounding the recent resignation of a vice-presidential aspirant from further candidacy. Evidence is plentiful that a former mental patient will encounter serious obstacles in attempting to find a job, sign a lease or buy a house. One commentator, noting that “former mental patients do not get jobs,” has insisted that, “[i]n the job market, it is better to be an ex-felon than ex-patient.” Testimony of Bruce J. Ennis, ACLU, New York City, 1970 Hearings at 284.

Perhaps the most serious possible effect of a decision to commit an individual lies in the statistics which indicate that an individual committed to a mental institution has a much greater chance of dying than if he were left at large. Data compiled in 1966 indicate that while the death rate per 1000 persons in the general population in the United States each year is only 9.5, the rate among resident mental patients is 91.8. Furman & Conners, Jr., “The Pennsylvania Experiment in Due Process,” 8 Duquesne L.Rev. 32, 65-66 (1970). Figures for Wisconsin are similar. The study showed a death rate for the Wisconsin populace in general of 9.7 per 1000 population per year (or less than one per cent) and a death rate in Wisconsin mental institutions of 85.1 per thousand (or 8.51 per cent). Id. at 66.

Although part of this difference may be accounted for by a larger number of older persons in mental institutions, .studies indicate that other factors also are involved. One factor is the smaller dumber of physicians per patient in public mental institutions in comparison to the ratio of doctors to individuals in the general population. In Wisconsin, in 1965, it is reported there was one physician for each 175 patients. Wisconsin thus ranked 46th among the 50 states in patient-physician ratios. 1970 Hearings at 646. 13 The median ratio in the Unit *1090 ed States in that year was one physician for 102 patients. These figures may be contrasted with the minimum standards for staff-patient ratios set by the American Psychiatric Association, which recommends one physician for every 30 patients for admission and intensive treatment facilities and one physician for 150 patients for continued treatment services. Am. Psych. Assn., Standards for Hospitals & Clinics (1956 ed., rev. 1958), 1970 Hearings at 365.

In summary, an adjudication of mental illness in Wisconsin carries with it loss of basic civil rights and loss of future opportunities. The damage done is not confined to a small number among the population. In 1963, 679,000 persons were confined in mental institutions in the United States; only 250,000 persons were incarcerated in all prisons administered by the states and federal government. Cohen, “The Function of the Attorney and the Commitment of the Mentally 111,” 44 Texas L.Rev. 424, 432-433 (1966). It would thus appear that the interests in avoiding civil commitment are at least as high as those of

persons accused of criminal offenses. The resulting burden on the state to justify civil commitment must be correspondingly high. We turn to the specific practices challenged by the plaintiffs in this ease.

III.

A.

Notice and an Opportunity to be Heard

Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of the sections of the Wisconsin civil commitment statute which permit involuntary detention for a possible total of 145 days without a hearing, 14 which fail to provide for meaningful notice and which allow the court to dispense with notice at all in cases in which notice is deemed “injurious or without advantage” to the patient. 15 We believe sections 51.02(1), 51.03, and 51.-04(1), (2), and (3) are unconstitutional on their face and as applied to the named plaintiff in this action, Alberta Lessard. 16

*1091 Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 379, 91 S.Ct. 780, 786, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971), established that an individual must “be given an opportunity for a hearing before he is deprived of any significant property interest . . . .” The individual’s interest in liberty is even more compelling than his interest in property rights; it follows that no significant deprivation of liberty can be justified without a prior hearing on the necessity of the detention. Clearly, involuntary confinement in a mental institution for 16 or 26 days is a significant deprivation of liberty, and one which cannot be permitted under our Constitution without a hearing.

It can be argued that no deprivation of liberty is permissible under the due process clause without a prior hearing. We téink, however, that the state may sometimes have a compelling interest in emergency detention of persons who threaten violence to themselves or others for the purpose' of protecting society and the individual. Cf., Boddie v. Connecticut, supra, 401 U.S. at 377-378, 91 S.Ct. 780. Such an emergency measure can be justified only for the length of time necessary to arrange for a hearing before a neutral judge at which probable cause for the detention must be established. The individual detained and members of his family must be given notice of' this hearing and attendance by the detained party cannot be waived.

We do not decide the precise time when this hearing must take place. The Wisconsin legislature may decide that a preliminary hearing should be held within a much shorter time than that required by this decision. We set down only the minimum standards which we believe are required by the due process clause. In this connection, we believe that the maximum period which a person may be detained without a preliminary hearing is .48 hours. It must be remembered that at this time the necessity for commitment of an individual has not yet been established. Those who argue that notice and a hearing at this time may be harmful to the patient ignore the fact that there has been no finding that the person is in need of hospitalization. 17 The argument also ignores the fact that even a short detention in a mental facility may have long lasting effects on the individual’s ability to function in the outside world due to the stigma attached to mental illness. 18

There is no necessity for us to determine at the present time the precise nature of the hearing that is required. “The formality and procedural requisites for the hearing can vary, depending upon the importance of the interests involved and the nature of the subsequent proceedings.” Boddie v. Connecticut, supra, 401 U.S. at 378, 91 S.Ct. at 786. The importance of the in *1092 terests involved in this situation are of the highest, in that the deprivation of liberty necessarily is one based on status and not on the alleged commission of an act deemed criminal by society. Cf., Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 8 L.Ed.2d 758 (1962). The exigency of the situation, encompassing an emergency situation and lack of time to marshal all facts necessary to an ultimate determination, however, precludes a requirement that a hearing at this time encompass all requirements which may be deemed essential at a subsequent hearing. Furthermore, “subsequent proceedings” should rectify any shortcomings in this preliminary procedure. We note, though, that due process is not accorded by an ex parte hearing in which the individual has no meaningful opportunity to be heard either because of incapacity caused by medication 19 or lack of counsel. 20

The preliminary hearing, concluded upon a showing of probable cause for believing the patient is in need of commitment within the constitutionally required sense of that definition, 21 does not justify a prolonged period of confinement without a full hearing on the necessity of continued confinement. This hearing