United States v. Xulam
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
84 F.3d 441 (1996)
Xulam (defendant), a Kurdish citizen of Turkey who had lived in Washington, D.C. for three years advocating for Kurdish rights, was arrested for using a false name on a passport application; the government sought pretrial detention solely on flight-risk grounds, conceding he posed no danger to the public. The district court granted detention, reasoning that the threat of deportation and Xulam's commitment to his advocacy work increased his flight risk and that no third-party supervision could mitigate that risk; Xulam appealed.
Whether the Bail Reform Act of 1984 prohibits a federal court from detaining a defendant pending trial unless the court concludes from a preponderance of the evidence that no alternative conditions could be imposed which would reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant at trial.