Board of Pardons et al. v. Allen et al. (482 U.S. 369)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 9, 1987 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 482 U.S. 369 · 107 S. Ct. 2415
- Decided
- June 9, 1987
- Term
- October Term 1986
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Brennan
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented is whether respondents have a liberty interest in parole release that is protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. I — ( Respondents are George Allen and Dale Jacobsen, inmates of the Montana State Prison. In 1984, after their applications for parole were denied, they filed this action pursuant to 42 U. S. C. § 1983 on behalf of a class of all present and future inmates of the Montana State Prison who were or might become eligible for parole. Seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as compensatory damages, the complaint charged the State Board of Pardons (Board) and its Chair with violations of the inmates’ civil rights. Specifically, respondents alleged that the Board does not apply the statutorily mandated criteria in determining inmates’ eligibility for parole, Complaint ¶¶6-9, App. 5a-6a, and that the Board does not adequately explain its reasons for denial of parole, id., ¶¶9, 10, App. 6a. The District Court first acknowledged that the case was controlled by the principles established in this Court’s decision in Greenholtz v. Nebraska Penal Inmates, 442 U. S. 1 (1979). In Greenholtz the Court held that, despite the necessarily subjective and predictive nature of the parole-release decision, see id., at 12, state statutes may create liberty interests in parole…
Excerpt of a 34,057-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.