Hensley v. Municipal Court/Concurrence Blackmun
[p353] MR. JUSTICE BLACKMUN, concurring in the result.
I emphasize again, as I did in my separate concurrence in Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Ky., 410 U.S. 484, 501 (1973), that the Court has wandered a long way down the road in expanding traditional notions of habeas corpus. Indeed, the Court now concedes this. Ante, at 349. The present case is yet another step. Although recognizing that the custody requirement is designed to preserve the writ as a remedy for severe restraints on [p354] individual liberty, ante, at 351, the Court seems now to equate custody with almost any restraint, however tenuous. One wonders where the end is. Nevertheless, in the light of cases already decided by the Court, I feel compelled to go along and therefore concur in the result.