Substantive Due Process in the United States
A substantive review focusing on the content of governmental policy and actions. Substantive due process is distinguished from procedural due process, which attends to the means by which policies are executed. Judicial review of the reasonableness of legislative enactments allows the courts to actively intervene in policy judgments more than they could if review were confined to procedural considerations. The use of substantive due process to invalidate economic regulation is illustrated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Lochner v. New York (198 U.S. 45: 1905). Lochner involved an attempt by the State of New York to limit the work week of bakers to 60 hours. The Court held that there is “no reasonable ground for interfering with the liberty of a person or the right of free contract by determining the hours of labor in the occupation of a baker.” The Court made a substantive judgment that the regulation of work hours for bakers was sufficiently unreasonable to constitute a denial of due process of law.
See Also
Due Process of Law (Judicial Function) Procedural Due Process (Judicial Function).
Analysis and Relevance
Use of the substantive due process approach places considerable policy monitoring power in the hands of the courts. In Meyer v. Nebraska (262 U.S. 390: 1923), for example, the Supreme Court struck down a statute prohibiting the teaching of a foreign language to any pre-ninth grade student, public or parochial. The Court ruled that the statute was “arbitrary and without reasonable relation to any end within the competency of the State.” Substantive due process review also occurs when statutes are stricken for reason of vagueness. When the Court voided a city ordinance in Coates v. Cincinnati (402 U.S. 611: 1971), an ordinance that prohibited public annoyance by assemblies of three or more persons standing on public sidewalks, it did so because the ordinance was arbitrary. It conveyed no discernible standards of conduct. Another example of substantive due process is the striking down of state statutes prohibiting abortion. Over the years, guarantees of procedural due process have been invoked by the Supreme Court far more frequently than guarantees relating to substantive due process.
Notes and References
- Definition of Substantive Due Process from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California
Substantive Due Process in the United States
Substantive Due Process
United States Constitution
According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled SUBSTANTIVE DUE PROCESSTo say that governmental action violates “substantive due process” is to say that the action, while adhering to the forms of law, unjustifiably abridges the Constitution’s fundamental constraints upon the content of what government may do to people in the name of “law.” As
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Substantive Due Process
United States Constitution
According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled SUBSTANTIVE DUE PROCESS The Supreme Court has long construed the Constitution’s due process clauses to have both procedural and substantive components. procedural due process guarantees against deprivation of life, liberty, or property without notice and an adequate hearing. Substantive
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