United States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, 510 U.S. 43, 22 (1993)

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64

UNITED STATES v. JAMES DANIEL GOOD REAL PROPERTY

Opinion of the Court

259-262 (1986); see also St. Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Brock, 769 F. 2d 37, 41 (CA2 1985) (Friendly, J.).

In Montalvo-Murillo, for example, we considered the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which requires an "immediat[e]" hearing upon a pretrial detainee's "first appearance before the judicial officer." 18 U. S. C. § 3142(f). Because "[n]either the timing requirements nor any other part of the Act [could] be read to require, or even suggest, that a timing error must result in release of a person who should otherwise be detained," we held that the federal courts could not release a person pending trial solely because the hearing had not been held "immediately." 495 U. S., at 716-717. We stated that "[t]here is no presumption or general rule that for every duty imposed upon the court or the Government and its prosecutors there must exist some corollary punitive sanction for departures or omissions, even if negligent." Id., at 717 (citing French, supra, at 511). To the contrary, we stated that "[w]e do not agree that we should, or can, invent a remedy to satisfy some perceived need to coerce the courts and the Government into complying with the statutory time limits." 495 U. S., at 721.

Similarly, in Brock, supra, we considered a statute requiring that the Secretary of Labor begin an investigation within 120 days of receiving information about the misuse of federal funds. The respondent there argued that failure to act within the specified time period divested the Secretary of authority to investigate a claim after the time limit had passed. We rejected that contention, relying on the fact that the statute did not specify a consequence for a failure to comply with the timing provision. Id., at 258-262.

Under our precedents, the failure of Congress to specify a consequence for noncompliance with the timing requirements of 19 U. S. C. §§ 1602-1604 implies that Congress intended the responsible officials administering the Act to have discretion to determine what disciplinary measures are appropriate when their subordinates fail to discharge their statu-

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