460
Blackmun, J., dissenting
categorical approach in Pate and Drope, it would not have recognized that a defendant has a right to a competency hearing, for in neither of those cases was there any showing that the mere denial of a hearing where there is doubt about competency offended any deeply rooted traditions of the American people.
In all events, I do not interpret the Court's reliance on Patterson to undermine the basic balancing of the government's interests against the individual's interest that is germane to any due process inquiry. While unwilling to discount the force of tradition and history, the Court in Patterson did not adopt an exclusively tradition-based approach to due process analysis. Relying on Morrison v. California, 291 U. S. 82 (1934), the Court in Patterson looked to the "convenience" to the government and "hardship or oppression" to the defendant in forming its allocation of the burden of proof. 432 U. S., at 203, n. 9, and 210.
" 'The decisions are manifold that within limits of reason and fairness the burden of proof may be lifted from the state in criminal prosecutions and cast on a defendant. The limits are in substance these, that the state shall have proved enough to make it just for the defendant to be required to repel what has been proved with excuse or explanation, or at least that upon a balancing of convenience or of the opportunities for knowledge the shifting of the burden will be found to be an aid to the accuser without subjecting the accused to hardship or oppression. Cf. Wigmore, Evidence, Vol. 5, §§ 2486, 2512, and cases cited.' " Id., at 203, n. 9 (quoting Morrison v. California, 291 U. S., at 88-89) (emphasis added).
See also Speiser v. Randall, 357 U. S. 513, 524 (1958) (same).
In Morrison v. California, the historical cornerstone of this Court's decisions in the area of due process and allocation of the burden of proof, the Court considered the consti-
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