Simone Lawson
Due process is protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause prohibits the federal and state governments from depriving citizens of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to guarantee a variety of protections, including procedural due process in civil and criminal proceedings, substantive due process, a prohibition against vague laws, and equal protection under the laws of the federal government. In criminal cases, due process protections overlap with the procedural protections provided by the Eighth Amendment, which guarantees reliable procedures to protect innocent people from being executed.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Clause | Due Process Clause |
| Found in | Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments |
| Prohibits | Deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" |
| Applies to | Federal and state governments |
| Interpreted by | U.S. Supreme Court |
| Guarantees | Procedural due process; substantive due process; prohibition against vague laws; incorporation of the Bill of Rights to state governments; equal protection under the laws of the federal government |
| Overlaps with | Eighth Amendment |
| Overlaps in | Criminal cases |
| Overlaps with | Procedural protections |
| Overlaps to protect | Innocent people from being executed |
| Overlaps with | Cruel and unusual punishment |
| Overlaps with | Substantive rights |
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What You'll Learn
Procedural due process
The U.S. Supreme Court interprets the Due Process Clause to guarantee a variety of protections, including procedural due process in civil and criminal proceedings. Procedural due process ensures that individuals are afforded certain rights and protections during legal proceedings, such as the right to notice, the right to be heard, and the right to a fair and impartial hearing.
In criminal cases, the Due Process Clause overlaps with procedural protections provided by the Eighth Amendment, which guarantees reliable procedures to protect innocent people from being executed, an example of cruel and unusual punishment. The courts have also viewed the Due Process Clause as embracing fundamental rights that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty".
The Due Process Clause has been interpreted to protect certain substantive rights that are not explicitly listed in the Constitution. This includes the protection of certain fundamental rights that the government may not infringe upon, even if it provides procedural protections. The Court's decision to protect these unenumerated rights through the Due Process Clause is based on the idea that certain liberties are so important that they cannot be infringed without a compelling reason, regardless of the amount of process given.
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Substantive due process
The Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause prohibits the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments without due process of law.
The Due Process Clause guarantees a variety of protections, including substantive due process. Substantive due process is a guarantee of some fundamental rights. The courts have interpreted substantive due process to embrace those fundamental rights that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty". The exact nature of these rights is not always clear, nor is the Supreme Court's authority to enforce them. However, some of these rights have a long history or are deeply rooted in American society.
For example, the Supreme Court has decided that numerous freedoms that do not appear in the plain text of the Constitution are nevertheless protected by it. The Court has also deemed the due process guarantees of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to protect certain substantive rights that are not listed (or "enumerated") in the Constitution. These include the right to freedom of contract, which was used to strike down minimum wage and labour laws during the Lochner era (c. 1897-1937).
The Court has also construed the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause to render many provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. As originally ratified, the Bill of Rights restricted the actions of the federal government but did not limit the actions of state governments.
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Prohibition against vague laws
The Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The clauses prohibit the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due process of law. The U.S. Supreme Court interprets these clauses to guarantee a variety of protections, including a prohibition against vague laws.
The Due Process Clause in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". The Court has construed the Clause to protect substantive due process, holding that there are certain fundamental rights that the government may not infringe even if it provides procedural protections. The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause has been interpreted to render many provisions of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states.
The Court has also deemed the due process guarantees of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to protect certain substantive rights that are not listed (or "enumerated") in the Constitution. The idea is that certain liberties are so important that they cannot be infringed without a compelling reason, no matter how much process is given. The Court's decision to protect unenumerated rights through the Due Process Clause is a little puzzling. The idea of unenumerated rights is not strange—the Ninth Amendment itself suggests that the rights enumerated in the Constitution do not exhaust "others retained by the people." The most natural textual source for those rights is probably the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits states from denying any citizen the "privileges and immunities" of citizenship.
Courts have viewed the due process clause, and sometimes other clauses of the Constitution, as embracing those fundamental rights that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty". Just what those rights are is not always clear, nor is the Supreme Court's authority to enforce such unenumerated rights clear. Some of those rights have long histories or "are deeply rooted" in American society.
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Incorporation of the Bill of Rights
Due process is protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause prohibits the federal and state governments from depriving citizens of "life, liberty, or property" without due process of law.
The Due Process Clause has been interpreted by the US Supreme Court to guarantee a range of protections, including procedural due process in civil and criminal proceedings, and substantive due process, which guarantees fundamental rights. The Court has also used the Due Process Clause to protect certain substantive rights that are not explicitly listed in the Constitution. This interpretation is based on the idea that certain liberties are so important that they cannot be infringed upon without a compelling reason, regardless of the amount of process given.
The Due Process Clause has also been used to incorporate the Bill of Rights to state governments. As originally ratified, the Bill of Rights restricted the actions of the federal government but did not limit the actions of state governments. However, through the Due Process Clause, the Supreme Court has decided that numerous freedoms that do not appear in the plain text of the Constitution are nevertheless protected by it.
In criminal cases, due process protections overlap with procedural protections provided by the Eighth Amendment, which guarantees reliable procedures to protect innocent people from being executed, an example of cruel and unusual punishment. The courts have also viewed the Due Process Clause as embracing fundamental rights that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty".
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Equal protection under the law
Due process is protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause prohibits the federal and state governments from depriving any person of "life, liberty, or property" without due process of law.
The Due Process Clause has been interpreted by the US Supreme Court to guarantee a variety of protections, including procedural due process in civil and criminal proceedings, substantive due process (a guarantee of some fundamental rights), a prohibition against vague laws, incorporation of the Bill of Rights to state governments, and equal protection under the laws of the federal government.
Procedural due process ensures that individuals receive fair and just treatment in legal proceedings, including the right to notice, a hearing, and an impartial decision-maker. Substantive due process, on the other hand, protects certain fundamental rights that are considered so important that they cannot be infringed upon without a compelling reason, even if procedural protections are provided.
The Court has also used the Due Process Clause to protect certain unenumerated rights, or rights that are not explicitly listed in the Constitution. This interpretation is based on the idea that the Constitution protects certain liberties that are "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty". While the Court's authority to enforce such unenumerated rights is not entirely clear, it has been used to protect numerous freedoms that do not appear in the plain text of the Constitution.
In criminal cases, due process protections overlap with the procedural protections provided by the Eighth Amendment, which guarantees reliable procedures to protect innocent people from being executed, an example of cruel and unusual punishment.
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Frequently asked questions
Due process is protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
The Due Process Clause prohibits the deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the federal and state governments without due process of law.
The Due Process Clause protects substantive due process, guaranteeing certain fundamental rights that the government may not infringe upon even if it provides procedural protections.
