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Opinion of Rehnquist, C. J.
James G. Sotos argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Michael W. Condon, Charles E. Hervas, and Michael D. Bersani.*
Chief Justice Rehnquist announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which Justice O'Connor, Justice Scalia, and Justice Ginsburg join.
A warrant was issued for petitioner's arrest by Illinois authorities, and upon learning of it he surrendered and was released on bail. The prosecution was later dismissed on the ground that the charge did not state an offense under Illinois law. Petitioner asks us to recognize a substantive right under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to be free from criminal prosecution except upon probable cause. We decline to do so.
We review a decision of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirming the grant of a motion to dismiss the complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), and we must therefore accept the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint as true. Illinois authorities issued an arrest warrant for petitioner Kevin Albright, charging him on the basis of a previously filed criminal information with the sale of a substance which looked like an illegal drug. When he learned of the outstanding warrant, petitioner surrendered to respondent, Roger Oliver, a police detective employed by the city of Macomb, but denied his guilt of such an offense. He was released after posting bond, one of the conditions of which was that he not leave the State without permission of the court.1
*Leon Friedman, Steven R. Shapiro, John A. Powell, and Harvey Grossman filed a brief for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. as amici curiae urging reversal.
Richard Ruda filed a brief for the National League of Cities et al. as amici curiae urging affirmance.
1 Before the criminal information was filed, one Veda Moore, an under-cover informant, had told Oliver that she bought cocaine from one John Albright, Jr., at a student hotel in Macomb. The "cocaine" turned out to
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