Carver

Rob McKenna, Sara J. Olson, and Gregory J. Rosen, Office of the Washington Attorney General, Criminal Justice Division, Olympia, WA, for the defendants-appellees.

Tyler A. Baker, Todd Gregorian, and Heather N. Mewes, Fenwick & West, LLP, Mountain View, CA, for the plaintiff-appellant.

Rob McKenna, Sara J. Olson, and Gregory J. Rosen, Office of the Washington Attorney General, Criminal Justice Division, Olympia, WA, for the defendants-appellees.

Before: STEPHEN REINHARDT, RICHARD C. TALLMAN, and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge MILAN D. SMITH, JR.; Concurrence by Judge REINHARDT.

MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:

This case presents the question whether a Washington state law providing for convicted sex offenders' early release into community custody creates a liberty interest that is protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We hold that it does not. We therefore affirm the decision of the district court denying Carver relief in this civil rights action.

In August 1999, Joseph Dale Carver, then 20 years old, pled guilty to child molestation in the third degree. This conviction followed two prior convictions for child…