Opinion ID: 382310
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Nature of Appellant's Due Process Interest

Text: 5 In order to assess Block's due process claim, it is important first to recognize that this is not a procedural due process case. Block does not contend that he has a liberty interest, or entitlement, to parole that must be preserved by imposing procedural safeguards. Instead, Block complains that otherwise satisfactory procedures and standards were applied to him in an arbitrary and impermissible manner. 6 Thus, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Greenholtz v. Inmates of Nebraska Penal & Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979), would appear to be no barrier to Block's assertion that his due process rights were violated. In Greenholtz the Court held that there is no liberty interest in parole release, derived either from the Constitution or from the mere existence of a discretionary parole system, to which procedural due process protections attach. This holding, however, does not stand for the proposition that once a state decides to provide that which it is not constitutionally compelled to offer, there are no constitutional limitations whatsoever on the basis for making decisions under the program. See Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S. 464, 468, 97 S.Ct. 2376, 2379, 53 L.Ed.2d 484 (1977); Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 597, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 2697, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972). To interpret Greenholtz as so holding would be to ascribe to that opinion the intent to initiate a major upheaval in due process jurisprudence. The case, however, does not contravene the time-honored principle that the touchstone of due process is protection of the individual against arbitrary action of government. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 558, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2976, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974); Dent v. West Virginia, 129 U.S. 114, 123, 9 S.Ct. 231, 233, 32 L.Ed. 623 (1889). 7 As the Supreme Court emphasized in Perry v. Sindermann, 408 U.S. 593, 92 S.Ct. 2694, 33 L.Ed.2d 570 (1972), (f)or at least a quarter-century (the Supreme) Court has made clear that even though a person has no 'right' to a valuable government benefit and even though the government may deny him the benefit for any number of reasons, there are some reasons upon which the government may not rely. Id. at 597, 92 S.Ct. at 2697. Thus, as Justice Powell recognized in Greenholtz, although nothing in the Constitution requires a State to provide for probation or parole ... when a State adopts a parole system that applies general standards of eligibility, prisoners justifiably expect that parole will be granted fairly and according to law whenever those standards are met. 442 U.S. at 19, 99 S.Ct. at 2110 (Powell, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). 8 The presence of a large measure of discretion in a parole system, such as that in the Virgin Islands, does not alter the fundamental due process limitation against capricious decisionmaking. A legislative grant of discretion does not amount to a license for arbitrary behavior. Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 553, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 1053, 16 L.Ed.2d 84 (1966); cf. Winsett v. McGinnes, 617 F.2d 996, 1006 (3d Cir. 1980) (in banc), petition for cert. filed sub nom. Anderson v. Winsett, 49 U.S.L.W. 3001 (July 1, 1980) (No. 79-2014) (to be consistent with due process, discretion of prison authorities under Delaware work release program cannot be absolute or unbridled). Although Greenholtz indicates that a state may condition the expectation of parole, or even deny it completely, a state statute may not sanction totally arbitrary parole decisions founded on impermissible criteria. 2 Under the Supremacy Clause, a state statute may not vitiate the fundamental due process right to be free from arbitrary governmental action. See Meachum v. Fano, 427 U.S. 215, 230, 96 S.Ct. 2532, 2541, 49 L.Ed.2d 451 (1976) (Stevens, J., dissenting). Thus, Greenholtz does not affect the vitality of the numerous cases holding that courts can review the substance of parole decisions, as distinguished from the adequacy of the procedures, to determine whether a parole board exercised its authority arbitrarily. See, e. g., Zannino v. Arnold, 531 F.2d 687 (3d Cir. 1976); Calabro v. United States Board of Parole, 525 F.2d 660 (5th Cir. 1975); Clay v. Henderson, 524 F.2d 921, 924 (5th Cir. 1975); Childs v. United States Board of Parole, 511 F.2d 1270 (D.C.Cir.1974). Even if a state statute does not give rise to a liberty interest in parole release under Greenholtz, once a state institutes a parole system all prisoners have a liberty interest flowing directly from the due process clause in not being denied parole for arbitrary or constitutionally impermissible reasons. Consequently, in alleging that the Virgin Islands Board of Parole acted arbitrarily by basing its decision on impermissible grounds, we believe that Block has stated a valid due process claim that this Court must resolve. 9