County of Riverside v. McLaughlin - Significance, The Promptness Requirement, No More Than 24 Hours Is Needed, Impact

court petitioner decision respondent

Petitioner

County of Riverside

Respondent

Donald Lee McLaughlin

Petitioner's Claim

That the county's providing a probable cause hearing to those arrested without a warrant within 48 hours of the arrest was acceptable.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Timothy T. Coates

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Dan Stormer

Justices for the Court

Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor (writing for the Court), William H. Rehnquist, David H. Souter, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

Harry A. Blackmun, Thurgood Marshall, Antonin Scalia, John Paul Stevens

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

13 May 1991

Decision

Reversed the decision of the court of appeals and held that a probable cause hearing must take place as soon as is reasonably feasible, but no later that 48 hours after an arrest.

Related Cases

Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103 (1975).
Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737 (1984).
Powell v. Nevada, 511 U.S. 79 (1994).
United States v. Alvarez-Sanchez, 511 U.S. 350 (1994).

County of Riverside v. McLaughlin - Significance

The ruling settled controversy which arose after Gerstein v. Pugh (1975), as to the meaning of "prompt, " when referring to the necessity of providing a prompt probable cause hearing to someone arrested without a warrant. A suspect arrested without a warrant has a Fourth Amendment right to prompt judicial determination of whether probable cause existed for his arrest. Absent extraordinary circumst…

County of Riverside v. McLaughlin - The Promptness Requirement

In Gerstein v. Pugh, the Supreme Court attempted to reconcile important competing interests in arrests without warrants. States have a strong interest in protecting public safety and individuals have a strong interest in protecting job, income, and family. The Court sought to balance these competing concerns and reach a practical compromise between the rights of individuals and the realities of la…

County of Riverside v. McLaughlin - No More Than 24 Hours Is Needed

Justice Scalia in his dissent noted that the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the Constitution) had already achieved a "balancing" between the competing concerns of protecting public safety and avoiding prolonged detention. "It is the function of the Bill of Rights to preserve that judgment, not only against the changing views of Presidents and Members of Congress, but also against the …

County of Riverside v. McLaughlin - Impact

In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. Nevada (1994), that McLaughlin's 48-hour rule must be applied retroactively, noting that a rule for the conduct of criminal prosecutions is to be applied retroactively to all cases, state or federal, not yet final when the rule is announced. In this case the Court also pointed out that the appropriate remedy for a delay in determining probable cause wa…

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