Essay On Due Process Clause

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The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution contains the Due Process Clause. The definition of due process is fair treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's entitlement. What this means is the government has to go through with a list of legal measures before it can deprive us of life, liberty, or property. The Due Process Clause provides four basic areas of protection, which are all overseen by the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the four areas of protection is incorporating protection into the Bill of Rights. Originally, the Bill of Rights was intended to only apply to the federal government. However, the Fourteenth Amendment made it so that the individual states had restrictions on their actions too. In …show more content…
This means that U.S. citizens are protected from laws that are too vague or unclear for an ordinary person to understand. Laws may be written in a fashion that doesn't make sense and a person cannot decide if a conduct is expressly prohibited, or a punishment can be given if they carry out the conduct. If this is true, the court can rule a law to be “void for vagueness”. This law ensures that ignorance cannot be used as a defense. Also, substantive due process is an area of protection. Rights are an important part of an individual's liberty, and substantive due process pertains to those not directly stated in the U.S. Constitution. Many of these rights are related to minorities, voting, and rights of children. The first thing that needs to be determined is whether the issue is a fundamental right. If it was a fundamental right, this means that the government violated substantive due process rights. Finally, the last area of protection is procedural due process. Procedural Due Process protects those, whether they be criminal or civil, during governmental proceedings. This also applies to hearings such as governmental benefit, parole, and complete criminal trials. A few rights for this include: the right to call a witness and present evidence, the right to be represented by counsel, the right to be given reason for the trial, and the right to an unbiased

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