58
Stevens, J., dissenting
for such silence." Id., at 8 (emphasis added). Since Malloy, we have construed the text to prohibit not only direct orders to testify, but also indirect compulsion effected by comments on a defendant's refusal to take the stand, Griffin v. California, 380 U. S. 609, 613-614 (1965), and we have recognized that compulsion can be presumed from the circumstances surrounding custodial interrogation, see Dickerson v. United States, 530 U. S. 428, 435 (2000) ("[T]he coercion inherent in custodial interrogation blurs the line between voluntary and involuntary statements, and thus heightens the risk that an individual will not be 'accorded his privilege under the Fifth Amendment . . . not to be compelled to incriminate himself' ") (quoting Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U. S. 436, 439 (1966)). Without requiring the deprivation of any other liberty interest, we have found prohibited compulsion in the threatened loss of the right to participate in political associations, Lefkowitz v. Cunningham, 431 U. S. 801 (1977), forfeiture of government contracts, Turley, 414 U. S., at 82, loss of employment, Uniformed Sanitation Men Assn., Inc. v. Commissioner of Sanitation of City of New York, 392 U. S. 280 (1968), and disbarment, Spevack v. Klein, 385 U. S. 511, 516 (1967). None of our opinions contains any suggestion that compulsion should have a different meaning in the prison context. Nor is there any support in our Fifth Amendment jurisprudence for the proposition that nothing short of losing one's livelihood is sufficient to constitute compulsion. Accord, Turley, 414 U. S., at 83.
The plurality's suggestion that our decision in Meachum v. Fano, 427 U. S. 215 (1976), supports a novel interpretation of the Fifth Amendment, see ante, at 39, is inconsistent with the central rationale of that case. In Meachum, a group of prison inmates urged the Court to hold that the Due Process Clause entitled them to a hearing prior to their transfer to a substantially less favorable facility. Relying on the groundbreaking decisions in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U. S. 471 (1972), and Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U. S. 539 (1974),
Page: Index Previous 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007