186
Opinion of the Court
stitutional motive. Thus, a defendant would be entitled to relief if a prosecutor refused to file a substantial-assistance motion, say, because of the defendant's race or religion.
It follows that a claim that a defendant merely provided substantial assistance will not entitle a defendant to a remedy or even to discovery or an evidentiary hearing. Nor would additional but generalized allegations of improper motive. See, e. g., United States v. Redondo-Lemos, 955 F. 2d 1296, 1302-1303 (CA9 1992); United States v. Jacob, 781 F. 2d 643, 646-647 (CA8 1986); United States v. Gallegos-Curiel, 681 F. 2d 1164, 1169 (CA9 1982) (Kennedy, J.); United States v. Berrios, 501 F. 2d 1207, 1211 (CA2 1974). Indeed, Wade concedes that a defendant has no right to discovery or an evidentiary hearing unless he makes a "substantial threshold showing." Brief for Petitioner 26.
Wade has failed to make one. He has never alleged, much less claimed to have evidence tending to show, that the Government refused to file a motion for suspect reasons such as his race or his religion. Instead, Wade argues now that the District Court thwarted his attempt to make quite different allegations on the record because it erroneously believed that no charge of impermissible motive could state a claim for relief. Hence, he now seeks an order of remand to allow him to develop a claim that the Government violated his constitutional rights by withholding a substantial-assistance motion "arbitrarily" or "in bad faith." See Brief for Petitioner 25. This, Wade says, the Government did by refusing to move because of "factors that are not rationally related to any legitimate state objective," see Reply Brief for Petitioner 4, although he does not specifically identify any such factors.
As the Government concedes, see Brief for United States 26 (citing New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U. S. 297, 303 (1976) (per curiam)), Wade would be entitled to relief if the prosecutor's refusal to move was not rationally related to any legitimate Government end, cf. Chapman v. United States, 500 U. S. 453, 464-465 (1991), but his argument is still of no avail.
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