Cite as: 538 U. S. 510 (2003)
Opinion of Souter, J.
We rejected that contention, leaving the petitioners in detention because they were dangerous to the public interest, and on that issue, an official had determined that the Carlson petitioners ought to be detained. Here, however, no impartial decisionmaker has determined that detaining Kim is required for any purpose at all, and neither the Government nor the Court even claims such a need.
For the same reason it is beside the point to note that the unsuccessful Carlson petitioners' brief raised a claim that detention without reference to facts personal to their individual cases would violate the Due Process Clause. Ante, at 524. As the United States pointed out in its own Carlson brief, that issue was never presented, since the District Director's exercise of discretion was based on individualized determinations that the petitioners were dangerous to society. See supra, at 570.26 Nor is the Court entitled to invoke Carlson by saying that the INS "had adopted a policy of refusing to grant bail" to alien Communists, which made the Attorney General's discretion to release aliens on bond merely "ostensibl[e]." Ante, at 524. The Carlson Court found that "[t]here is no evidence or contention that all perof an alien, the Attorney General is justified in denying bail on the ground that the alien is an active participant in Communist Party affairs, or whether he is bound also to consider other circumstances, particularly the likelihood that the alien will report as ordered." Pet. for Cert. in Butter-field v. Zydok, O. T. 1951, No. 136, p. 2.
26 While a prior conviction may sometimes evidence a risk of future danger, it is not conclusive in all cases, and Kim is a good example, given that the Government found that he "would not be considered a threat." App. 13. Indeed, the Court acknowledges that convictions are only "relevant to" dangerousness, ante, at 525, n. 9; it does not state that they compel a finding of danger in all cases. As even the Zadvydas dissent recognized, due process requires that detained criminal aliens be given an opportunity to rebut the necessity of detention by showing "that through rehabilitation, new appreciation of their responsibilities, or under other standards, they no longer present special risks or danger if put at large." 533 U. S., at 721 (opinion of Kennedy, J.).
571
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