Bail and excessive conditions

Stack v. Boyle

342 U.S. 1 (1951)

Decision date

November 5, 1951

Record type

U.S. Reports opinion

Source checked

September 4, 2026

InmateLink explanation

What this case helps you understand

Stack addresses the principle that bail conditions should be no higher than reasonably necessary to assure a person's appearance and should not operate as punishment. The assessment is individualized under the governing law.

Limits to check

Modern preventive-detention statutes and later decisions, including Salerno, affect how bail and detention questions are analyzed.
Release procedures, conditions, and review vary by jurisdiction and case posture.

Do not assume

Stack does not guarantee release or a particular bail amount in an individual case.
Do not treat this page as a complete statement of current federal or state pretrial law.

Questions to check

What release or risk findings support the requested conditions in this case?
Does the current governing statute authorize detention or the proposed conditions?

Review scope: Primary U.S. Reports record plus the listed official later-treatment anchors; not a citator or exhaustive current-law review. Reviewed September 4, 2026. This is an InmateLink explanation, not copied opinion text or legal advice.

Official primary source

Open the court record

This page identifies the official opinion record and its citation. Read the complete opinion at the official publisher before relying on it.

Open official opinion record

Publisher: U.S. Government Publishing Office · GovInfo
Official citation: 342 U.S. 1 (1951)

Current-treatment boundary

Review is intentionally not exhaustive.

InmateLink has not published a complete current-rule statement for this case. Later opinions, statutes, court rules, and state-law limits may change how a principle applies. Treat the links below as a research trail, not legal advice.

Related official treatment anchors

United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739 (1987)

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