Sandin v. Conner, 515 U.S. 472, 27 (1995)

Page:   Index   Previous  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  Next

498

SANDIN v. CONNER

Breyer, J., dissenting

the ancient institution of property to protect those claims upon which people rely in their daily lives, reliance that must not be arbitrarily undermined"). In protecting liberty, however, the Due Process Clause protects, not this kind of reliance upon a government-conferred benefit, but rather an absence of government restraint, the very absence of restraint that we call freedom. Cf. Meachum, 427 U. S., at 230-231 (Stevens, J., dissenting) (citing Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U. S. 471, 482 (1972)).

Nevertheless, there are several other important reasons,

in the prison context, to consider the provisions of state law. The fact that a further deprivation of an inmate's freedom takes place under local rules that cabin the authorities' discretionary power to impose the restraint suggests, other things being equal, that the matter is more likely to have played an important role in the life of the inmate. Cf. Hewitt, supra, at 488 (Stevens, J., dissenting). It suggests, other things being equal, that the matter is more likely of a kind to which procedural protections historically have applied, and where they normally prove useful, for such rules often single out an inmate and condition a deprivation upon the existence, or nonexistence, of particular facts. Cf. Thompson, 490 U. S., at 468-470 (Marshall, J., dissenting); United States v. Florida East Coast R. Co., 410 U. S. 224, 244-245 (1973). It suggests, other things being equal, that the matter will not involve highly judgmental administrative matters that call for the wise exercise of discretion—matters where courts reasonably should hesitate to second-guess prison administrators. See Meachum, supra, at 225. It suggests, other things being equal, that the inmate will have thought that he himself, through control of his own behavior, could have avoided the deprivation, and thereby have believed that (in the absence of his misbehavior) the restraint fell outside the "sentence imposed" upon him. Cf. Thompson, 490 U. S., at 464-465. Finally, courts can identify the presence or absence of cabined discretion fairly easily and

Page:   Index   Previous  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007