Cite as: 510 U. S. 266 (1994)
Stevens, J., dissenting
knowledged that not every modest impairment of individual liberty amounts to a deprivation raising constitutional concerns. Cf. Meachum v. Fano, 427 U. S. 215 (1976). At the same time, however, we have recognized that a variety of state actions have such serious effects on protected liberty interests that they may not be undertaken arbitrarily,7 or
without observing procedural safeguards.8
In my opinion, the formal commencement of a criminal proceeding is quintessentially this type of state action. The initiation of a criminal prosecution, regardless of whether it
to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men." Id., at 399 (citations omitted).
7 See, e. g., Turner v. Safley, 482 U. S. 78, 94-99 (1987) (invalidating prison regulation of inmate marriages); Moore v. East Cleveland, 431 U. S. 494, 500 (1977) (striking down ordinance that prohibited certain relatives from residing together because it had only a "tenuous relation" to its goals); Wieman v. Updegraff, 344 U. S. 183, 191 (1952) (requiring loyalty oaths of public employees violates due process because "[i]ndiscriminate classification of innocent with knowing activity must fall as an assertion of arbitrary power"); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510, 534-535 (1925) (state law requiring parents to send children to public school violates due process because "rights guaranteed by the Constitution may not be abridged by legislation which has no reasonable relation to some purpose within the competency of the State").
8 See, e. g., Cleveland Bd. of Ed. v. Loudermill, 470 U. S. 532, 542 (1985) ("An essential principle of due process is that a deprivation of life, liberty, or property 'be preceded by notice and opportunity for hearing appropriate to the nature of the case' ") (quoting Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U. S. 306, 313 (1950)); Goss v. Lopez, 419 U. S. 565, 581 (1975) ("[D]ue process requires, in connection with a suspension of 10 days or less, that the student be given oral or written notice of the charges against him and, if he denies them, an explanation of the evidence the authorities have and an opportunity to present his side of the story"); Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U. S. 433, 436-437 (1971) ("Where a person's good name, reputation, honor, or integrity is at stake because of what the government is doing to him, notice and an opportunity to be heard are essential").
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