50
Opinion of the Court
are alleged, we are not in the habit of identifying as a preliminary matter the claim's 'dominant' character. Rather, we examine each constitutional provision in turn."
Here, as in Soldal, the seizure of property implicates two " 'explicit textual source[s] of constitutional protection,' " the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth. Ibid. The proper question is not which Amendment controls but whether either Amendment is violated.
Nevertheless, the Government asserts that when property is seized for forfeiture, the Fourth Amendment provides the full measure of process due under the Fifth. The Government relies on Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U. S. 103 (1975), and Graham v. Connor, 490 U. S. 386 (1989), in support of this proposition. That reliance is misplaced. Gerstein and Graham concerned not the seizure of property but the arrest or detention of criminal suspects, subjects we have considered to be governed by the provisions of the Fourth Amendment without reference to other constitutional guarantees. In addition, also unlike the seizure presented by this case, the arrest or detention of a suspect occurs as part of the regular criminal process, where other safeguards ordinarily ensure compliance with due process.
Gerstein held that the Fourth Amendment, rather than the Due Process Clause, determines the requisite postarrest proceedings when individuals are detained on criminal charges. Exclusive reliance on the Fourth Amendment is appropriate in the arrest context, we explained, because the Amendment was "tailored explicitly for the criminal justice system," and its "balance between individual and public interests always has been thought to define the 'process that is due' for seizures of person or property in criminal cases." 420 U. S., at 125, n. 27. Furthermore, we noted that the protections afforded during an arrest and initial detention are "only the first stage of an elaborate system, unique in jurisprudence,
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