Cite as: 510 U. S. 266 (1994)
Stevens, J., dissenting
sequence of prosecution) customarily will not arise before an arrest, or at least before the notification that an arrest warrant has been issued, informs him of the charges.
There may indeed be exceptional cases where some quantum of harm occurs in the interim period after groundless criminal charges are filed but before any Fourth Amendment seizure. Whether any such unusual case may reveal a substantial deprivation of liberty, and so justify a court in resting compensation on a want of government power or a limitation of it independent of the Fourth Amendment, are issues to be faced only when they arise. They do not arise in this case and I accordingly concur in the judgment of the Court.3
Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Blackmun joins, dissenting.
The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution constrains the power of the Federal Government to accuse a citizen of an infamous crime. Under that Amendment, no accusation may issue except on a grand jury determination that there is probable cause to support the accusation.1 The question presented by this case is whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposes any comparable constraint on state governments.
3 Justice Stevens argues that the fact that "few of petitioner's injuries flowed solely from the filing of the charges against him does not make those injuries insubstantial," post, at 312 (emphasis in original), and maintains that the arbitrary filing of criminal charges may work substantial harm on liberty. Ibid. While I do not quarrel with either proposition, neither of them addresses the threshold question whether the complaint alleges any substantial deprivation beyond the scope of what settled law recognizes at the present time.
1 "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger . . . ." U. S. Const., Amdt. 5. See also United States v. Calandra, 414 U. S. 338, 343 (1974).
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