Also known as: due process of law · due-process · due process clause
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A constitutional guarantee requiring government officials to provide notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before depriving any person of life, liberty, or property.
A constitutional guarantee requiring government officials to provide notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before depriving any person of life, liberty, or property.
Federal prosecutors charge Diane Dawson with a capital offense arising from events on a military base during peacetime. The government attempts to proceed by information rather than indictment. The court dismisses the charge because the Fifth Amendment requires a grand jury presentment before any person may be held to answer for a capital crime outside actual wartime military service.
A constitutional protection that shields fundamental personal liberties from arbitrary or unreasonable governmental interference regardless of the procedures employed.
Danielle Dixon, a white woman, and Demetrius Douglas, a Black man, apply for a marriage license in a state that prohibits interracial unions. State officials deny the license solely on racial grounds. A court invalidates the denial because the freedom to marry a person of another race is a fundamental liberty protected against state infringement by the Due Process Clause.
A constitutional protection that shields fundamental personal liberties from arbitrary or unreasonable governmental interference regardless of the procedures employed.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Damian Decker owns property that a state agency seizes under a statute allowing immediate forfeiture upon suspicion of illegal use. Decker receives no prior notice or hearing. The court holds the seizure unconstitutional because the Fourteenth Amendment forbids any state from depriving a person of property without due process of law.
Duarte Shipping owns Grand Central Terminal and seeks to build a large office tower above it. New York City designates the terminal a landmark and blocks the project. The owners sue claiming the restrictions deprive them of property without due process. The court analyzes whether the regulation goes too far under the Due Process and Takings Clauses.
The clause requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before any deprivation of property occurs. The Fifth Amendment applies this rule to the federal government and the Fourteenth Amendment applies it to the states.
Daphne Doyle is convicted of a nonviolent crime and faces mandatory sterilization under a state eugenics law. She challenges the statute as an infringement on her fundamental right to procreate. The court strikes down the law because substantive due process protects the right to procreate from arbitrary state compulsion.
Darrell Duncan lives with his nonmarital child and the child's mother until the mother dies. State officials immediately remove the child without any hearing on his fitness as a parent. The court rules that due process protects his established custodial relationship and requires a fair process before severing the parental bond.
Due process protects both. Procedural due process guarantees fair procedures while substantive due process shields fundamental liberties such as the right to marry and the right to procreate from arbitrary governmental interference.
The Court examines whether the asserted right is deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition and whether it is implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. Rights meeting this standard, such as marriage and procreation, receive protection against state infringement.
…found in the Bill of Rights. But that liberty is not guaranteed absolutely against deprivation, only against deprivation without due process of law. The test traditionally applied in the area of social and economic legislation is whether or not a law such as that challenged has a rational relation to a valid state objective.…