Download Civil Rights and Liberties - United States Political History and more Lecture notes Political history in PDF only on Docsity! Oklahoma State University – Oklahoma City Civil Rights and Liberties - POLS 1320 Winter 2022 Lecture Notes Three Contents: Due Process Rights and Criminal Justice Lecture Notes Three Due process is a requirement that legal matters be resolved according to established rules and principles, and that individuals be treated fairly. Due process applies to both civil and criminal matters. What is due process in the 5th Amendment? One important aspect of the Fifth Amendment is known as “due process,” or the requirement that the government cannot deprive a person of their freedom or property without going through the court system. What are the five steps of due process? The Five Elements of “Due Process” Equality: The system must not discriminate procedurally between parties. ... Economy: The cost of access to the system must not be a barrier to its use or operate to the disadvantage of one or the other parties: Expedition: Evidence: Equity: The Constitution states only one command twice. The Fifth Amendment says to the federal government that no one shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, uses the same eleven words, called the Due Process Clause, to describe a legal obligation of all states. These words have as their central promise an assurance that all levels of American government must operate within the law ("legality") and provide fair procedures. Most of this essay concerns that promise. We should briefly note, however, three other uses that these words have had in American constitutional law. The Fifth Amendment's reference to “due process” is only one of many promises of protection the Bill of Rights gives citizens against the federal government. Originally these promises had no application at all against the states (see Barron v City of Baltimore (1833)). However, this attitude faded in Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company v. City of Chicago (1897), when the court incorporated the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause. In the the middle of the Twentieth Century, a series of Supreme Court decisions found that the Due Process Clause "incorporated" most of the important elements of the Bill of Rights and made them applicable to the states. If a Bill of Rights guarantee is "incorporated" in the "due process" requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment, state and federal obligations are exactly the same. The words “due process” suggest a concern with procedure rather than substance, and that is how many--such as Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote "the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause is not a secret repository of substantive guarantees against unfairness"--understand the Due Process Clause. However, others believe that the Due Process Clause does include protections of substantive
