Foucha v. Louisiana

Foucha v. Louisiana
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 4, 1991 Decided May 18, 1992
Full case name	Terry Foucha v. State of Louisiana
Docket no.	90-5844
Citations	504 U.S. 71 (more) 112 S. Ct. 1780; 118 L. Ed. 2d 437; 1992 U.S. LEXIS 2703
Case history
Prior	Petitioner's writ denied in State Court of Appeals, denial affirmed in State Supreme Court
Holding
Potential dangerousness is not a justification to commit a person found not guilty by reason of insanity if no mental illness is present.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices Byron White · Harry Blackmun John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas
Case opinions
Majority	White (Parts I, II), joined by O'Connor, Blackmun, Stevens, Souter
Plurality	White (Part III), joined by Blackmun, Stevens, Souter
Concurrence	O'Connor
Dissent	Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist
Dissent	Thomas, joined by Rehnquist, Scalia
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Foucha v. Louisiana, 504 U.S. 71 (1992), was a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court addressed the criteria for the continued commitment of an individual who had been found not guilty by reason of insanity. The individual remained involuntarily confined on the justification that he was potentially dangerous even though he no longer suffered from the mental illness that served as a basis for his original commitment.^[1]