246
Opinion of the Court
Ali v. Sims, 788 F. 2d 954, 958-959 (CA3 1986); United States v. London, 723 F. 2d 1538, 1539 (CA11), cert. denied, 467 U. S. 1228 (1984). Indeed, the premise of Molinaro's disentitlement theory is that "the fugitive from justice has demonstrated such disrespect for the legal processes that he has no right to call upon the court to adjudicate his claim." Ali v. Sims, 788 F. 2d, at 959; see Molinaro, 396 U. S., at 366. We have no reason here to question the proposition that an appellate court may employ dismissal as a sanction when a defendant's flight operates as an affront to the dignity of the court's proceedings.
The problem in this case, of course, is that petitioner, who fled before sentencing and was recaptured before appeal, flouted the authority of the District Court, not the Court of Appeals. The contemptuous disrespect manifested by his flight was directed at the District Court, before which his case was pending during the entirety of his fugitive period. Therefore, under the reasoning of the cases cited above, it is the District Court that has the authority to defend its own dignity, by sanctioning an act of defiance that occurred solely within its domain. See United States v. Anagnos, 853 F. 2d 1, 2 (CA1 1988) (declining to follow Holmes because former fugitive's "misconduct was in the district court, and should affect consequences in that court, not in ours").
We cannot accept an expansion of this reasoning that would allow an appellate court to sanction by dismissal any conduct that exhibited disrespect for any aspect of the judicial system, even where such conduct has no connection to the course of appellate proceedings. See supra, at 244, and n. 15. Such a rule would sweep far too broadly, permitting, for instance, this Court to dismiss a petition solely because the petitioner absconded for a day during district court proceedings, or even because the petitioner once violated a condition of parole or probation. None of our cases calls for such a result, and we decline today to adopt such an
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