568
Opinion of Souter, J.
challenges to removability requiring lengthy proceedings.23
See Vera Institute Study 33, 37 (stating that many of the criminal aliens studied were "lawful permanent residents who have spent much or all of their adult lives in the United States" and that 40% of those released on supervision "were allowed to stay in the United States"). Successful challenges often require several months of proceedings, see Brief for Citizens and Immigrants for Equal Justice et al. as Amici Curiae 10-20; detention for an open-ended period like this falls far short of the "stringent time limitations" held to be significant in Salerno, 481 U. S., at 747. The potential for several months of confinement requires an individualized finding of necessity under Zadvydas.24
B
The Court has failed to distinguish Zadvydas in any way that matters. It does no better in its effort to portray its result in this case as controlled by Carlson v. Landon, 342 U. S. 524 (1952), and Reno v. Flores, 507 U. S. 292 (1993).
23 Criminal aliens whose "removal proceedings are completed while [they are] still serving time for the underlying conviction," ante, at 529, are irrelevant to this case, since they are never detained pending removal proceedings under § 1226(c).
24 The Court calls several months of unnecessary imprisonment a "very limited time," ante, at 529, n. 12. But the due process requirement of an individualized finding of necessity applies to detention periods shorter than Kim's. Schall v. Martin, 467 U. S. 253 (1984), involved a maximum detention period of 17 days, id., at 270, yet our due process analysis noted that the detainee was entitled to a hearing in which he could challenge the necessity of his confinement before an impartial decisionmaker required to state the facts and reasons underlying any decision to detain, id., at 276- 277. The 90-day removal period in § 1231(a)(1) not only has a fixed endpoint, but also applies only after the alien has been adjudged removable, § 1231(a)(1)(B). The discussion of that provision in Zadvydas cannot be read to indicate any standard of permissible treatment of an LPR who has not yet been found removable.
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