that the state must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person.
Due process balances the power of law of the land
and protects individual persons from it.
When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law,
this constitutes a due-process violation, which offends against the rule of law.
Due process has also been frequently interpreted
as limiting laws and legal proceedings so that judges - instead of legislators
- may define and guarantee fundamental fairness, justice, and liberty.
This interpretation of due process is sometimes expressed
as a command that the government must not be unfair to the people...
...Clause 39 of the Magna Carta provided:
"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions,
or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way,
nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so,
except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land."
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution
each contain a Due Process Clause.
The Supreme Court of the United States
interprets the Clauses...:
procedural due process (in civil and criminal proceedings),
substantive due process, a prohibition against vague laws,
and as the vehicle for the incorporation of the Bill of Rights.
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:
[N]or shall any person . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law . . .
Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:
[N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law . . . .
Procedural due process
This protection extends to all government proceedings
that can result in an individual's deprivation, whether civil or criminal in nature,
from parole violation hearings
to administrative hearings regarding government benefits and entitlements
to full-blown criminal trials.
Civil due process
At a basic level, procedural due process
is essentially based on the concept of "fundamental fairness."
...As construed by the courts, it includes an individual's right
to be adequately notified of charges or proceedings,
the opportunity to be heard at these proceedings,
and that the person or panel making the final decision over the proceedings
be impartial in regards to the matter before them.
...where an individual is facing a deprivation of life, liberty, or property,
procedural due process mandates that he or she is entitled
to adequate notice, a hearing, and a neutral judge.
The Supreme Court has formulated a balancing test
to determine the rigor with which the requirements of procedural due process
should be applied to a particular deprivation...
The Court set out the test as follows:
"[I]dentification of the specific dictates of due process
generally requires consideration of three distinct factors:
first, the private interest that will be affected by the official action;
second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used,
and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards...
...The requirement of a neutral judge
has introduced a constitutional dimension into the question
of whether a judge should recuse himself or herself from a case.
Specifically, the Supreme Court has ruled that in certain circumstances,
the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
requires a judge to recuse himself on account of a potential or actual conflict of interest.
For example, on June 8, 2009, in Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co. (2009),
the Court ruled that a justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
could not participate in a case involving a major donor to his election to that court.
...Today, the Court focuses on three types of rights
under substantive due process in the Fourteenth Amendment,
which originated in United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144 (1938),
Those three types of rights are:
the first eight amendments in the Bill of Rights (e.g. the Eighth Amendment);
restrictions on the political process (e.g. the rights of voting, association, and free speech);
and the rights of “discrete and insular minorities.”
...if the violation of the right can be rationally related to a legitimate government purpose,
then the law is held valid.
If the court establishes that the right being violated is a fundamental right,
it applies strict scrutiny.
This test inquires into whether there is a compelling state interest
being furthered by the violation of the right,
and whether the law in question is narrowly tailored to address the state interest.
...the Supreme Court now uses the Due Process Clause
as a basis for various unenumerated privacy rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause
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