Schneyder v. Smith (653 F.3d 313, 2011)

OPINION

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. This case is about a seizure and presents questions of whether and how the Constitution’s guarantee applies in the case of a material witness who was jailed for weeks on end, even though the date of the trial in which she was to testify had been pushed back several months. We hold that the Fourth Amendment applies to such a detention, and that it requires a prosecutor responsible for such a detention to inform the judge who ordered the witness’s incarceration of any substantial change in the underlying circumstances. We also conclude that the prosecutor in this case had “fair warning” of the constitutional right she is accused of violating, and that she is therefore not shielded from liability by the doctrine of qualified immunity. Finally, we reaffirm our earlier holding that absolute prosecutorial immunity does not apply. We will therefore affirm the District Court’s order denying summary judgment to the defendant.

I

Nicole Schneyder was an essential witness in Pennsylvania’s effort to bring Michael Overby to justice for rape, robbery, and murder. After apparently being threatened by Overby’s family, Schneyder refused to testify, going so far as to pull a knife on a police detective as he attempted to arrest her for the purpose of compelling her appearance in court. Schneyder successfully avoided capture for the duration of Overby’s first two trials, so the prosecution offered her prior recorded statements in lieu of her live testimony. This procedure presented obvious Confrontation Clause problems, and Overby’s conviction in the second trial (the first ended in a hung jury) was overturned on appeal. Commonwealth v. Overby, 570 Pa. 328, 809 A.2d 295 (2002).

Overby’s third trial — at which Schneyder’s live testimony would be absolutely necessary — was set to begin on February 2, 2005. Schneyder went into hiding as the trial date approached, leaving the police unable to serve her with a subpoena despite several attempts. Schneyder’s mother informed police on one of these occasions that her daughter had no intention of coming into court.

On January 26, 2005, Philadelphia assistant district attorney Gina Smith applied to Judge Rayford Means of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas for a warrant authorizing Schneyder’s arrest as a material witness pursuant to what is now Pa. R.Crim. P. 522. Rule 522(A) allows a court to “issue process” and “set bail for any material witness” for whom there is “adequate cause for the court to conclude that the witness will fail to appear when required if not held in custody or released on bail.” Once process has issued and the witness has been brought into court, Rule 522(B) directs that “the court shall commit the witness to jail” if she is unable to fulfill the bail conditions — provided that the court must release the witness if at any time thereafter she satisfies the court’s demands. Smith’s warrant application averred that Schneyder’s testimony was “critical,” that she “ha[d] been threatened by someone in the defendant’s family,” and that “[gjiven her previous several failure[s] to appear ... it is highly unlikely that she will appear for trial.” Judge Means issued the warrant, and a police officer apprehended Schneyder that night.

Judge Means scheduled a bail hearing for the next day and appointed public defender Laura Davis to represent Schneyder. Before the hearing, Judge Means met with Smith and Davis in camera. At this off-the-record meeting, Judge Means advised Smith that he intended to authorize Schneyder’s detention until trial, but instructed Smith to inform him in the event that the trial was pushed back from the scheduled date. On the record, Judge Means expressed distaste for “setting bail on people who are not accused of a crime,” but nevertheless ordered Schneyder imprisoned when she could not put up a $300,000 surety. The court also advised the parties (the language in the transcript leaves unclear precisely whom he was addressing): “If the case breaks down, let me know early and I’ll let you out.” Judge Means then went on:

I only intend to keep you on this bail until you testify or the trial is concluded if you did have it on February 2nd and the Commonwealth says, we don’t need you anymore, we’re done with you, okay, then I will want them to come back to me and say, look, we don’t have any need for her. If they make a decision at some point on January 31st, we changed our mind, we don’t even need this lady, come back to me so I can bring her down and remove this.

The court ordered an informal status conference for February 14, 2005 to facilitate reassessment of the situation in the event that the trial remained ongoing. According to Judge Means’ affidavit, he “explicitly placed the onus on Ms. Smith to notify me if for any reason the case was continued or broke down, as it was my clear intention that, in that event, I would immediately release Ms. Sehneyder from custody.” Further, he averred that, “[h]ad I been notified that the Overby case had been continued, I would have immediately ordered Ms. Schneyder’s release.”

When February 2 arrived, the Overby trial (over which Judge Means was not presiding) was continued until May 25, 2005. Smith did not inform Judge Means of this fact, and Sehneyder remained in jail. Smith did not appear for the scheduled February 14 status conference, which led Judge Means to assume that the issue of Schneyder’s detention had been mooted by her release. Over the course of the next several weeks, members of Sehneyder’s family contacted Smith “approximately 25 times” to inquire as to why she was still in jail and to ask when she would be let go. Schneyder’s father died on February 28, and on March 1 Schneyder’s sister contacted Paul Conway, chief of the Philadelphia Defender Association’s Homicide Unit, in the hopes that he could obtain Schneyder’s release for the funeral. Conway was able to secure only an order allowing the plaintiff to visit the funeral home in handcuffs for a few minutes; Sehneyder was denied permission to attend the funeral itself.

In the process of obtaining the funeral home release, Conway learned that the trial for which Sehneyder was being held was not set to start until late May. In Conway’s view, “it wasn’t right to keep her there” for such a long time, so he began an effort to free Sehneyder from jail.' He started by contacting Smith, but she initially refused to agree'to Schneyder’s release. His next step was to ask that Sehneyder be allowed out on house arrest. In the course of preparing that request, Conway made contact with Davis, the public defender who had been assigned to Sehneyder at the January 27 bail hearing. Davis provided him with her notes of that hearing, and upon reading them Conway became convinced that Judge Means had meant for Sehneyder to be released in the event that the Overby trial did not start on February 2. Put in that context, the fact that Sehneyder was still locked up made Conway “really angry.” He' hustled to Judge Means’ courtroom and (according to Conway’s account) “astonished” the judge by telling him that Schneyder was still in custody. Judge Means ordered Schneyder discharged shortly thereafter. By this time it was March 21, and Schneyder had been locked up for 54 days — 48 of them after the February 2 continuance.

Schneyder sued Smith and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, filing a complaint which included claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and state law. Only the § 1983 claim against Smith remains in the case; it alleges that Smith violated Schneyder’s Fourth Amendment rights “by failing to notify Judge Means or take any steps to have plaintiff released from custody knowing that she would not be needed as a witness in the underlying criminal case for several more months.” The District Court initially granted Smith’s Rule 12 motion to dismiss the § 1983 claim on the .basis that she was entitled to absolute prosecutorial immunity, but a panel of this court reversed. Odd v. Malone, 538 F.3d 202 (3d Cir.2008). After remand and discovery, Smith invoked both absolute and qualified immunity and moved for summary judgment. The District Court rejected Smith’s arguments and denied the motion. Schneyder v. Smith, 709 F.Supp.2d 368 (E.D.Pa.2010). This appeal ensued.

II

We have appellate jurisdiction under the collateral order doctrine: “28 U.S.C. §. 1291 confers appellate jurisdiction over the District Court’s denial, at the summary-judgment stage, of [a] defendant’s] claim that [she is] entitled to absolute or qualified immunity, to the extent that denial turns on questions of law.” Bayer v. Monroe Cnty. Children & Youth Servs., 577 F.3d 186, 191 (3d Cir.2009) (citations omitted). There are no material factual disputes, Smith having conceded various of the plaintiffs factual averments for purposes of this motion.

We review the District Court’s denial of summary judgment de novo, applying the same test that the District Court should have applied and viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Id.

Ill

“The doctrine of qualified immunity protects government officials ‘from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.’ ” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 129 S.Ct. 808, 815, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009) (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). There are two related but distinct inquiries in a qualified immunity case. One is whether the defendant’s conduct violated the plaintiffs civil rights; the other is whether the right in question was clearly established at the time of the violation. We conclude that both of these questions should be answered affirmatively, and that Smith is therefore not shielded by qualified immunity.

A

The Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, provides that “[e]very person who, under color of [state law], subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured” in an appropriate action. Setting aside the availability of immunity, the basic cause of action requires that a § 1983 plaintiff prove two essential elements: (1) that the conduct complained of was committed by a person acting under color of state law; and (2) that the conduct deprived the plaintiff of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States. Kost v. Kozakiewicz, 1 F.3d 176, 184 (3d Cir.1993) (citing Parrott v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981)). There is no question that Smith, who acted in her capacity as an assistant district attorney, did so under color of state law. The question under § 1983 is therefore whether Smith’s failure to advise Judge Means of the continuance in Overby deprived Schneyder of a constitutionally protected right. This inquiry can be subdivided into the questions (1) whether Schneyder’s imprisonment violated one or more of her constitutional rights, and, if so, (2) whether Smith’s conduct caused the illegal imprisonment.

1

To determine whether Schneyder has made out a violation of her constitutional rights, we first must determine what right she is asserting and whence in the Constitution that right springs. The parties and the District Court have all discussed the right at issue primarily in terms of the Fourth Amendment’s proscription of unreasonable seizures. Superficially, at least, Schneyder’s imprisonment meets the Supreme Court’s definition of a “seizure”: “a Fourth Amendment seizure [occurs] ... when there is a governmental termination of freedom of movement through means intentionally applied.” Scott v. Harris, 550 U.S. 372, 381, 127 S.Ct. 1769, 167 L.Ed.2d 686 (2007) (quoting Brower v. Cnty. of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593, 596-97, 109 S.Ct. 1378, 103 L.Ed.2d 628 (1989)). Schneyder’s freedom of movement was obviously terminated, and there is ample evidence that Smith intended that result. See Ashcroft v. al-Kidd (al-Kidd II), 563 U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 2074, 2080, 179 L.Ed.2d 1149 (2011) (“An arrest, of course, qualifies as a ‘seizure’ of a ‘person’ ..., and so must be reasonable under the circumstances.”) (citation omitted). There was, however, some suggestion at oral argument, and in the briefs, that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause applies instead.

The question of which Amendment applies is answered, at least in this Circuit, by citation to Gallo v. City of Philadelphia, 161 F.3d 217, 222-24 (3d Cir.1998), wherein we adopted Justice Ginsburg’s “continuing seizure” interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. See Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 277-80, 114 S.Ct. 807, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994) (Ginsburg, J., concurring). In her Albright concurrence, Justice Ginsburg wrote:

At common law, an arrested person’s seizure was deemed to continue even after release from official custody. See, e.g., 2 M. Hale, Pleas of the Crown *124 (“he that is bailed, is in supposition of law still in custody, and the parties that take him to bail are in law his keepers”); 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *297 (bail in both civil and criminal cases is “a delivery or bailment, of a person to his sureties, ... he being supposed to continue in their friendly custody, instead of going to gaol”).

Id. at 277-78, 114 S.Ct. 807. The purpose of the arrest, regardless of the nature of the case, “was ‘only to compel an appearance in court,’ and ‘that purpose is equally answered, whether the sheriff detains [the suspect’s] person, or takes sufficient security for his appearance, called bail.’ ” Id. at 278, 114 S.Ct. 807 (citing 3 Blackstone, supra, at *290 (discussing civil cases); 4 id, at *297 (explaining that the nature of bail is the same in criminal and civil cases)). Pre-trial restrictions of liberty aimed at securing a suspect’s court attendance are all “seizures” on this view; the difference between detention in jail, release on bond, and release subject to compliance with other conditions is in the degree of restriction on the individual’s liberty, not in the kind of restriction. Id. Justice Ginsburg went on to argue that “[t]his view of the definition and duration of a seizure comports with common sense and common understanding.” Id. A person who is “required to appear in court at the state’s command,” who may be (for instance) “subject ... to the condition that he seek formal permission from the court ... before exercising what would otherwise be his unquestioned right to travel outside the jurisdiction,” and who may suffer diminished employment prospects, reputational harm, and “the financial and emotional strain of preparing a defense” continues to labor under a restriction of his liberty interests even though he is not in custody. Id. Thus even a defendant who is released pending trial “is scarcely at liberty; he remains apprehended, arrested in his movements, indeed ‘seized’ for trial, so long as he is bound to appear in court and answer the state’s charges. He is equally bound to appear, and is hence ‘seized’ for trial, when the state employs the less strong-arm means of a summons in lieu of arrest to secure his presence in court.” Id. at 279, 114 S.Ct. 807. On Justice Ginsburg’s theory, the plaintiff in Albright (also suing under § 1983 for a Fourth Amendment violation), “remained effectively ‘seized’ for trial for so long as the prosecution against him remained pending.” Id. The rationale is that a government-imposed restriction on a person’s liberty is a seizure governed by the Fourth Amendment if its purpose is to ensure that he appears in court. In contrast, if a pre-trial detainee suffers a deprivation amounting to punishment, his claim is governed by the Due Process Clause: “[A] detainee may not be punished prior to an adjudication of guilt in accordance with due process of law.” Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979). And once a person has been convicted and sentenced, his liberty may be restricted provided that he received the process he was due and that the conditions and duration of his punishment are not “cruel” or “unusual” under the Eighth Amendment. But when the government restricts the liberty of a person who has not been convicted of a crime for the purpose of securing her court appearance, that restriction is a Fourth Amendment seizure.

We followed this analysis in Gallo, stating that it was both “compelling and supported by Supreme Court case law.” 161 F.3d at 223. Applying Justice Ginsburg’s reasoning, we held that the plaintiff had been seized where he “had to post a $10,000 bond, ... had to attend all court hearings including his trial and arraignment, ... was required to contact Pre-trial Services on a weekly basis, and ... was prohibited from traveling outside New Jersey and Pennsylvania.” Id. Similarly, in Johnson v. Knorr, 477 F.3d 75, 85 n. 14 (3d Cir.2007), we held that the plaintiffs detention in a cell for two days, the requirement that he post bail, and the fact that he was required to appear in court for a hearing constituted a Fourth Amendment seizure. See also DiBella v. Borough of Beachwood, 407 F.3d 599, 603 (3d Cir.2005) (“Pre-trial custody and some onerous types of pre-trial, non-custodial restrictions constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure.”). The theory undergirding these decisions and Justice Ginsburg’s Albright concurrence is that substantial pre-trial restrictions on liberty — most prominently, custodial detentions — are “seizures” when they are imposed in order to compel a court appearance.

We acknowledge that this theory may be in tension with our statement in Torres v. McLaughlin, 163 F.3d 169, 174 (3d Cir.1998), that “the limits of Fourth Amendment protection relate to the boundary between arrest and pre-trial detention”— the implication being that once the state’s conduct ceases to be an arrest and begins to constitute pre-trial detention (wherever that line may be drawn), the seizure ends and the Fourth Amendment no longer applies. The Torres court’s statement is not, however, binding on us here. For one thing, Torres was decided after Gallo, leaving its precedential value on this point in serious doubt. See Holland v. N.J. Dep’t of Corr., 246 F.3d 267, 278 n. 8 (3d Cir.2001) (“[T]o the extent that [a case within this Circuit] is read to be inconsistent with earlier case law, the earlier case law ... controls.”) (citation omitted). Moreover, the above quotation from Torres is dicta: the case involved the question whether Torres’ post-conviction incarceration was a Fourth Amendment seizure. The answer to that question is “no,” even under the Ginsburg-Gallo theory. The Torres panel therefore had no need to opine on the limits of the Fourth Amendment’s pre-conviction application. Finally, Torres left open the possibility that “there may be some circumstances during pretrial custodial detention that implicate Fourth Amendment rights,” 169 F.3d at 174, and if that is the case then surely the very fact of a pre-trial detention would implicate the right against unreasonable seizures.

We agree with Gallo’s assessment of Justice Ginsburg’s theory, and therefore reaffirm what Gallo at least strongly implied: When the state places constitutionally significant restrictions on a person’s freedom of movement for the purpose of obtaining his presence at a judicial proceeding, that person has been seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

This theory concerning the “definition and duration of a seizure,” Albright, 510 U.S. at 278, 114 S.Ct. 807 (Ginsburg, J., concurring), implies that when a material witness is subjected to constitutionally significant restrictions of her liberty for the purpose of securing her appearance at trial, those restrictions are governed by the Fourth Amendment. That Amendment is not limited to criminal suspects, but protects “[t]he right of the people to be secure ... against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const, amend. IV (emphasis added). Accordingly, the Supreme Court defines “seizure” in general terms: “a person has been ‘seized’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment only if, in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.” California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 627-28, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991) (quoting United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980)) (emphasis added). The Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures extends to all of “the people,” and the guarantees of the Bill of Rights extend to a person detained as a material witness just as they would extend to anyone else. See al-Kidd II, 131 S.Ct. at 2080-83 (applying Fourth Amendment analysis to the arrest and detention of a material witness); al-Kidd v. Ashcroft (al-Kidd I), 580 F.3d 949, 965 (9th Cir.2009) (“Material witness arrests are ‘seizures’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and are therefore subject to its reasonableness requirement.”) (citing Bacon v. United States, 449 F.2d 933, 942 (9th Cir.1971)), rev’d on other grounds, 563 U.S.-, 131 S.Ct. 2074. A person who is subjected to conditions that would constitute a seizure if she had been arrested for a crime is still seized even though she is not a criminal suspect but a material witness. She has been arrested and deprived of liberty for precisely the same purpose as a pre-trial detainee in a criminal case: to ensure that she shows up in court as required by the state. See Al-bright, 510 U.S. at 278-79, 114 S.Ct. 807 (Ginsburg, J., concurring). The Fourth Amendment therefore governs our inquiry into the constitutionality of Schneyder’s detention.

2

As we noted above, Schneyder’s incarceration plainly meets the Supreme Court’s definition of a Fourth Amendment “seizure.” But that is not the end of the story, for “what the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures.” Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960) (emphasis added); United States v. Ritter, 416 F.3d 256, 261 (3d Cir.2005). In the ordinary criminal case, arrest and detention of a suspect is reasonable if it is supported by probable cause, as determined by the judge who either issues an arrest warrant or conducts a preliminary hearing. See, e.g., Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 111-14, 95 S.Ct. 854, 43 L.Ed.2d 54 (1975). Gerstein explained that the probable cause standard “represents a necessary accommodation between the individual’s right to liberty and the State’s duty to control crime” — that is, it is a particular instance of the Fourth Amendment’s more general inquiry into overall reasonableness. Id. at 112, 95 S.Ct. 854. This point is further reflected in the fact that while a pre-arrest probable cause determination is to be made by a “neutral and detached magistrate whenever possible,” the Fourth Amendment admits of “practical compromise” allowing police to make an on-the-scene probable cause assessment so long as any prolonged restraint of liberty is supported by a prompt, post-arrest judicial determination that probable cause does in fact exist. Id. at 112-14, 95 S.Ct. 854.

We are not, however, presented with an ordinary criminal case, and despite the parties’ arguments and the District Court’s opinion (all of which are couched in terms of probable cause), probable cause is an inapposite concept for assessing whether the detention of a material witness was constitutionally reasonable. The phrase “probable cause” appears, on its face, to prescribe only a burden of proof, and the Fourth Amendment does not provide an obvious answer to the substantive question, “probable cause as to what? ” This is explained by the fact that “probable cause, since before the founding, has always been a term of art of criminal procedure.” al Kidd I, 580 F.3d at 966. The phrase has meaning, derived from its common-law origins, that is more than its two words would reveal if read in isolation. That is, the term itself supplies an answer to the “as to what?” question. Probable cause demands that the police have reasonably trustworthy knowledge of facts “sufficient to warrant a prudent man in believing that the [arrestee] had committed or was committing an offense.” Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964) (emphasis added) (quoted in Gerstein, 420 U.S. at 111, 95 S.Ct. 854; al-Kidd I, 580 F.3d at 966). Stated differently, “[t]he substance of all the definitions of probable cause is a reasonable ground for belief of guilt.” Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949) (emphasis added) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted) (quoted in Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U.S. 366, 371, 124 S.Ct. 795, 157 L.Ed.2d 769 (2003)). See also al-Kidd I, 580 F.8d at 966-67 (citing, e.g., Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 811, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996); Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 37, 99 S.Ct. 2627, 61 L.Ed.2d 343 (1979); Locke v. United States, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 339, 348, 3 L.Ed. 364 (1813) (Marshall, C.J.)). “Probable cause as used in the Fourth Amendment is a substantive concept of law____Its meaning embraces not merely a certain quantum of evidence, but a certain quantum of evidence related to one and only one specific thing — the commission of a crime. This has always been so.” Ricardo J. Bascuas, The Unconstitutionality of “Hold Until Cleared”: Reexamining Material Witness Detentions in the Wake of the September 11 Dragnet, 58 Vand. L.Rev. 677, 716-19 (2005). For probable cause to exist, the evidence available must provide police or the warrant-issuing magistrate with reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested is guilty of a crime. This definition of the term renders it irrelevant to an assessment of the legality of the seizure of a material witness: “An arrest of a material witness is not justified by probable cause because [the facts that justify such an arrest] do not constitute the elements of a crime.” al-Kidd I, 580 F.3d at 967; see also al-Kidd II, 131 S.Ct. at 2082, 2083 (discussing the justification for detaining a person as a material witness in terms of “individualized reasons to believe that he was a material witness and that he would soon disappear” and “individualized suspicion,” rather than probable cause).

3

So while the Fourth Amendment applies here, the probable cause requirement cannot. The Amendment provides only one standard that could govern this situation: a seizure of an uncharged material witness is constitutionally prohibited if it is “unreasonable.” Schneyder’s Fourth Amendment rights were therefore violated only to the extent that her detention as a material witness was “unreasonable” within the Fourth Amendment’s meaning, and Smith is liable under § 1983 only insofar as she caused Schneyder to endure such an “unreasonable” detention. See al-Kidd I, 580 F.3d at 968 (interpreting Bacon as having held that a material witness seizure is “reasonable” where the statutory requirements are established by a “probable cause” burden of proof).

The “key principle of the Fourth Amendment” is the balancing of various competing interests. Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 700 n. 12, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981) (citation omitted). “To determine the constitutionality of a seizure ‘[we] must balance the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests against the importance of the governmental interests alleged to justify the intrusion.’ ” Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 8, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) (quoting United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 703, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983)). The question is “whether the totality of the circumstances justified] a particular sort of search or seizure.” Id. at 8-9, 105 S.Ct. 1694. See also United States v. Awadallah, 349 F.3d 42, 58-64 (2d Cir.2003) (applying a balancing analysis to determine whether the length of a material-witness detention comported with the Fourth Amendment); Donald Q. Cochran, Material Witness Detention in a Post-9/11 World: Mission Creep or Fresh Start?, 18 Geo. Mason L.Rev. 1, 22-24 (2010) (proposing a rule combining “probable cause” to believe that the elements of the federal material witness statute are met with a separate reasonable-duration limitation on the length of a detention); cf. Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678, 689, 121 S.Ct. 2491, 150 L.Ed.2d 653 (2001) (reading an implicit “reasonable time” limitation into a federal alien detention statute in order to avoid the “serious constitutional problem[s]” that would face an indefinite detention provision).

In Villanova v. Abrams, 972 F.2d 792 (7th Cir.1992), Judge Posner offered a method of analysis for considering the reasonableness of a civil commitment: “In mathematical terms, the test of a reasonable commitment can be expressed by the inequality C