Cite as: 538 U. S. 510 (2003)
Opinion of Souter, J.
dissenting) (arguing that evidence of Communist party membership was "insufficient to show danger"; that evidence of some aliens' activities was stale; and that the history of treatment of the aliens involved forced him to conclude that the Attorney General was not actually exercising discretion on an individual basis).28 And even if the Carlson dissenters were factually correct, all that would show is that the Carlson Court was misled (by the Government, no less) into deciding the case on the basis that individualized findings of dangerousness were made. Given that the Carlson Court clearly believed that it was deciding a case in which individualized determinations occurred, it is serious error for this Court to treat Carlson as deciding a case in which they did not.
Finally, the Court gets no help from the isolated passages of the Carlson opinion that it quotes. Although the Carlson Court stated that detention was " 'a part' " of deportation procedure, ante, at 524 (quoting Carlson, 342 U. S., at 538), it nowhere said that detention was part of every deportation proceeding. Instead, it acknowledged that "the far larger part" of aliens deportable on "subversive charges" were re-28 Justice Black's dissenting statement that one of the aliens was " 'not likely to engage in any subversive activities,' " 342 U. S., at 549, does not amount to a "specific finding of nondangerousness," ante, at 525. On the contrary, the Court expressly stated that the Government could prove dangerousness based on "personal activity" in the Communist Party; it simply was not required to go so far as to show "specific acts of sabotage or incitement to subversive action." Carlson, supra, at 541. Thus while there was no finding of "subversive action," there certainly was a finding of "danger," albeit one that Justice Black found unconvincing.
Likewise, Justice Frankfurter's statement in dissent that the Solicitor General of the United States had "advised" that "it has been the Govern-ment's policy . . . to terminate bail" for aliens awaiting deportation who were "present active Communists," 342 U. S., at 568, is difficult to reconcile with the contrary statements in both the majority opinion and the United States's brief in Carlson, see supra, at 569-572. Whatever its basis, Justice Frankfurter's reference to a "policy" of bail denials does not bear the weight that the Court places upon it today.
573
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