Is preventive detention of a competent adult for dangerousness in violation of the Fifth Amendment?

The Fifth Amendment. We turn then to the issue whether preventive detention of a competent adult for dangerousness is a deprivation of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Fifth Amendment. Obviously there is a deprivation of liberty. Indeed, physical confinement of an individual is the ultimate deprivation of liberty. Of course the right to the enjoyment of liberty from confinement is not absolute. The right may be denied as punishment upon conviction of a crime, and it may be denied in some limited circumstances as regulation, for example, to prevent the spread of contagious disease. The Government does not dispute that detention of a competent adult to prevent the commission of crime may not be imposed as punishment unless there has been an adjudication of guilt. See Bell v. Wolfish, supra. It maintains, however, that the detention authorized by section 3142(e) serves the purposes of regulation, and its constitutionality is therefore to be tested by standards pertinent to regulation rather than to punishment.