Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 31 (1994)

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296

ALBRIGHT v. OLIVER

Stevens, J., dissenting

prompts an arrest, immediately produces "a wrenching disruption of everyday life." Young v. United States ex rel. Vuitton et Fils S. A., 481 U. S. 787, 814 (1987). Every prosecution, like every arrest, "is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant's liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy, and create anxiety in him, his family and his friends." United States v. Marion, 404 U. S. 307, 320 (1971). In short, an official accusation of serious crime has a direct impact on a range of identified liberty interests. That impact, moreover, is of sufficient magnitude to qualify as a deprivation of liberty meriting constitutional protection.9

III

The next question, of course, is what measure of "due process" must be provided an accused in connection with this deprivation of liberty. In In re Winship, 397 U. S. 358, 361- 364 (1970), we relied on both history and certain societal interests to find that, in the context of criminal conviction, due process entails proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The same considerations support a requirement that criminal prosecution be predicated, at a minimum, on a finding of probable cause.

It has been the historical practice in our jurisprudence to withhold the filing of criminal charges until the state can marshal evidence establishing probable cause that an identifiable defendant has committed a crime. This long tradition

9 The Court of Appeals was persuaded that the Court's reasoning in Paul v. Davis, 424 U. S. 693 (1976), required a different conclusion. 975 F. 2d, at 345. Even if one accepts the dubious proposition that an individual's interest in his or her reputation simpliciter is not an interest in liberty, Paul v. Davis recognized that liberty is infringed by governmental conduct that injures reputation in conjunction with other interests. 424 U. S., at 701. The commencement of a criminal prosecution is certainly such conduct.

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