Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-896_2135.pdf
Page Number: 10

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

of  §1231(a)(6)  that  requires  the  Government  to  provide
bond hearings before immigration judges after six months
of  detention,  with  the  Government  bearing  the  burden  of 
proving  by  clear  and  convincing  evidence  that  a  detained 
noncitizen poses a flight risk or a danger to the community. 
Section 1231(a)(6) provides only that a noncitizen ordered
removed “may be detained beyond the removal period” and
if released, “shall be subject to [certain] terms of supervi-
sion.”  On its face, the statute says nothing about bond hear-
ings before immigration judges or burdens of proof, nor does
it provide any other indication that such procedures are re-
quired.  Faithfully applying our precedent, the Court can no
more discern such requirements from the text of §1231(a)(6) 
than a periodic bond hearing requirement from the text of 
§1226(a).  See id., at ___ (slip op., at 23).  Section 1231(a)(6)
therefore cannot be read to incorporate the procedures im-
posed by the courts below as a matter of textual command. 
Arteaga-Martinez responds that §1231(a)(6)’s references 
to flight risk, dangerousness, and “ ‘terms of supervision’ ” 
support the relief ordered below.  Brief for Respondent 29–
30.  Similarly, respondents in the companion case analogize 
the text of §1231(a)(6) to that of §1226(a), and they note that 
noncitizens  detained  under  §1226(a)  have  long  received
bond hearings at the outset of detention.  Brief for Respond-
ents  in  Garland  v.  Gonzalez,  O.  T.  2021,  No.  20–322, 
pp. 22–24.  However, assuming without deciding that an ex-
press statutory reference to “bond” (as in §1226(a)) might 
be read to require an initial bond hearing, §1231(a)(6) con-
tains no such reference.  A more oblique reference to terms 
of supervision does not suffice. 

Respondents in the companion case also emphasize that
regulations  offer  custody  hearings  before  immigration
judges  for  noncitizens  the  Government  detains  under
§1231(a)(6)  because  it  deems  them  “specially  dangerous.” 
See 8 CFR §241.14; Brief for Respondents in No. 20–322, at 
16, 25–26.  They argue that if the statute can allow custody