Due Process of Law in the United States

Due Process of Law, as administered through courts of justice in accordance with established and sanctioned legal principles and procedures, and with safeguards for the protection of individual rights. It is often referred to in such terms as the “law of the land” and “legal judgment of his peers.” These expressions were used for the first time in the sense of due process in the great charter of English liberty, the Magna Carta.

In the U.S. the phrase due process first appears in the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified December 15, 1791. Because the amendment refers specifically to federal and not state actions, another amendment was necessary to include the states. This was accomplished by the 14th Amendment, ratified July 9, 1868. Thus was established at both federal and state levels that no person “shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

As determined by custom and law, due process has become a guarantee of civil as well as criminal rights. Much emphasis has recently been placed by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural safeguards in the administration of criminal justice in federal and state courts. Through interpretation of the law, due process has grown to include, among other things, provision for ensuring an accused person a fair and public trial before a competent tribunal, the right to be present at the trial, and the right to be heard in his or her own defense; the doctrine that the provisions of criminal statutes must be drawn so that reasonable persons can be presumed to know when they are breaking the law; and the principles that taxes may be imposed only for public purposes, that property may be taken by the government only for public use, and that the owners of property so taken must be fairly compensated.

Source:”Due Process of Law,” Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000