Like most states, Florida law provides for involuntary civil confinement of individuals whose mental illness makes them a danger to themselves or others. Specifically (from Wikipedia),
The Baker Act allows for involuntary examination (what some call emergency or involuntary commitment), which can be initiated by judges, law enforcement officials, physicians, or mental health professionals. There must be evidence that the person:
- possibly has a mental illness.
- is in danger of becoming a harm to self, harm to others, or is self neglectful.
Both of these are defined in the Baker Act.
Examinations may last up to 72 hours after a person is deemed medically stable and occur in over 100 Florida Department of Children and Families-designated receiving facilities statewide.[2]
There are many possible outcomes following examination of the patient. These include the release of the individual to the community (or other community placement), a petition for involuntary inpatient placement (often called civil commitment), involuntary outpatient placement (what some call outpatient commitment or assisted treatment orders), or voluntary treatment (if the person is competent to consent to voluntary treatment and consents to voluntary treatment). The involuntary outpatient placement language in the Baker Act took effect as part of the Baker Act reform in 2005.
This came to mind when I saw reports that Trump is now telling confidants that he will be reinstated as President in August. This is clearly delusional. As often happens with grandiose narcissists, he has apparently slipped over the line from malicious but self-aware lies designed to stir up his followers, to believing his own bullshit (or as we used to say at college, “smoking his own dope”). If he believes this — and there’s no apparent reason to doubt the reports — Trump has obviously lost touch with reality. (Arguably that happened long ago, but this appears to be unequivocal proof that he holds an objectively and demonstrably false belief.)
Realizing this, I thought of how ordinary mortals are subject to so-called “civil confinement,” that is, involuntary confinement for treatment to mental illness, when their delusions make them a threat to the health or safety of others. Trump’s continuing delusion that he won the election, and now that he will be reinstated as President, clearly has the potential to lead to physical violence by his supporters — in fact, it already has, on January 6 — and the danger only appears to be growing, not fading away, as time passes. So, for the benefit of himself, and to protect the health and safety of Americans in general, it seems clear to me that Trump should be confined and treated for his dangerous mental delusions of grandeur.
But could that really happen? Politically, probably not, but as a legal matter, it appears that it could (and in my opinion, should). The criteria for invocation of the Baker Act in Florida seem to be met: There has been widespread commentary from psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to the effect that Trump is mentally ill. (See, e.g., the numerous diaries from our fellow Kossack Hal Brown.) So he meets the first requirement, that he appear to a mental health professional to be mentally ill. And as just mentioned, his delusions obviously are highly dangerous, not only to the individuals who would be harmed by Trump-inspired violence, but collectively, as a threat to our continued existence as a democratic republic.
So, based on the summaries of the Baker law, it appears that a licensed Florida mental health professional could petition a court to seek that Trump be subject to a psychiatric examination to determine if he in fact is mentally ill and constitutes a danger to others. Are there any Florida professionals willing to step up to the plate to save our country?
(Note: Do I really believe this will happen? No. And there are obvious issues with putting political opponents in psychiatric hospitals — shades of the Soviet Union under Brezhnev. But Trump’s behavior is so extreme, and so dangerous to the continued viability of our democratic system, that it actually occurred to me that this could be a possible response.)