The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday to hear the sexual predator case the Kansas Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional March 1.
Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall is ready to argue the case before the Supreme Court in late November or early December.
Stovall said more and more states are looking for laws to protect people from sexual predators.
Stovall petitioned the Supreme Court asking for review, pointing out the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court conflicts with decisions of the supreme courts of Washington and Wisconsin and lower courts in Minnesota and California.
All five states, including Kansas, have similar sexual predator laws.
Mary Horsch, director of communications for Stovall, said 34 states or territories wrote briefs in support of the law.
The law would allow sexual predators to be held after their prison terms were served if it is found the offender is suffering from a "mental abnormality or personality disorder."
Leroy Hendrix, convicted of being a sexually violent predator by a Sedgwick County jury, is being held at the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services in Larned.
Hendrix served his term of 10 years for child molestation and was placed in the rehabilitation center.
Tom Weilert, Hendrix's attorney, said the legislation confines persons who are not necessarily mentally ill.
"If this is upheld, it could lead to anyone that has a mental abnormality to be put away simply because they commit some antisocial act," Weilert said.
Tamara Hawk, Licensed Specialist Clinical Social Worker in private practice, said it is hard to define a sexual predator because the environment in prison may not show the same indications they would show in the community.
"The personality type is antisocial but sophisticated," Hawk said. "They know how to manipulate people into believing them and know what they want to hear. Chronic offenders believe they can fool the system."
The law wants mental health providers to present hard evidence to benefit their position but mental health workers cannot talk in exact terms as the legal system would like them to, Hawk said.
She said mental health is not stable.
The briefing for the case will take place sometime around September with the Supreme Court reviewing the case at the end of the fall term.
"The state expert found that Mr. Hendrix isn't mentally ill," Weilert said.