550
Opinion of Souter, J.
§ 3142(f)). We stressed that the Act was not a "scattershot attempt to incapacitate those who are merely suspected of" serious offenses, 481 U. S., at 750, and held that due process allowed some pretrial detention because the Act confined it to a sphere of real need: "[w]hen the Government proves by clear and convincing evidence that an arrestee presents an identified and articulable threat to an individual or the community." Id., at 751; see also Foucha, supra, at 81 (calling the pretrial detention statute in Salerno a "sharply focused scheme").
We have reviewed involuntary civil commitment statutes the same way. In Addington v. Texas, 441 U. S. 418 (1979), we held that a State could not civilly commit the mentally ill without showing by "clear and convincing evidence" that the person was dangerous to others, id., at 433. The elevated burden of proof was demanded because "[l]oss of liberty calls for a showing that the individual suffers from something more serious than is demonstrated by idiosyncratic behavior." Id., at 427. The statutory deficiency was the same in Foucha, where we held that Louisiana's civil commitment statute failed due process because the individual was denied an "adversary hearing at which the State must prove by clear and convincing evidence that he is demonstrably dangerous to the community." 504 U. S., at 81. See also id., at 88 (opinion of O'Connor, J.) (civil commitment depends on a "necessary connection between the nature and purposes of confinement").
In addition to requiring a compelling reason for detention, we held that the class of persons affected must be narrow and, in pretrial-type lockup, the time must be no more than what is reasonably necessary before the merits can be resolved. In the case of the Bail Reform Act, we placed weight on the fact that the statute applied only to defendants suspected of "the most serious of crimes," Salerno, supra, at 747; see also Foucha, supra, at 81, while the statute in Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U. S. 346 (1997), likewise provided
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