Whether courts of appeals should review de novo a district court's determination that an identification is constitutionally reliable

QUESTION PRESENTED Witness misidentifications are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause thus requires trial courts to exclude unreliable identifications obtained through improperly suggestive police procedures. But lower courts are divided over the standard of review to apply when a trial court rules that an identification is sufficiently reliable. The question presented is whether courts of appeals should review de novo a district court’s determination that an identification is constitutionally reliable, as the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits hold, or for clear error, as the Second Circuit holds. i