Court Opinion

ID: 9476726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:03:34.552467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:28.372130
License: Public Domain

JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
Since neither appellant is now presenting us with any basis for challenging the pretrial detention orders, I agree that the appropriate disposition of this appeal is to affirm the orders. I note, however, that neither the Supreme Court decision, upholding the constitutionality of preventive detention for dangerousness against certain facial challenges, United States v. Salerno, — U.S. -, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987), nor our affirmance of the detention orders puts to rest all doubts concerning the constitutionality of the Bail Reform Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3141-3156 (Supp.II 1984). For example, a substantial remaining issue is whether the Act may be constitutionally applied in circumstances where the evidence of the defendant’s guilt meets only the standard of probable cause but not a higher standard, such as clear and convincing evidence. Since the probable cause standard was fashioned to assess the lawfulness of the action of a police officer making the sometimes instantaneous decision whether grounds exist to arrest, it is a fair question whether that standard is constitutionally adequate for the more intrusive decision to detain a defendant until trial without bail for what may be an extended period of time. See Alschuler, Preventive Pretrial Detention and the Failure of Interest-Balancing Approaches to Due Process, 85 Mich.L.Rev. 510 (1986).