MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Supreme Court took the unusual step Wednesday of reversing the commitment of a man to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program and sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings that could result in him going free.

The high court reaffirmed its previous rulings requiring that sex offenders must be found to be “highly likely” to reoffend before courts civilly commit them to the state’s secure treatment program, which is the subject of a constitutional challenge in federal court and a debate in the Legislature. But the high court justices said judges need to make formal findings of fact on whether less restrictive treatment programs are available.

Questions remain over whether the sex offender program is constitutional because only two men have ever been released on any kind of provisional discharge. Justice Alan Page wrote a pointed but nonbinding concurrence saying the Legislature has created “a single one-size-fits-all” system without adequate facilities and treatment programs and has failed to provide less restrictive alternatives.

“It is equally clear that we, as a court, have failed in our obligations to ensure that commitment … is not merely a form of preventive detention,” Page wrote.